Photo by Deb Gau Dwight Speh, one of the vendors at the Pioneer Power Threshing Show in Hanley Falls, brought his own working model of an antique hay press.

By Deb Gau

dgau@marshallindependent.com

HANLEY FALLS — Machines big and small were rumbling to life in Hanley Falls on Saturday, from huge tractors and threshing machines to smaller gas engines. It was all part of the Pioneer Power Threshing Show held over the weekend on the grounds of the Minnesota Machinery Museum.

Past rows of antique tractors, visitors stopped to watch groups of people putting grain into threshing machines, and then using the straw to make hay bales.

“It’s a slow process. Each bale is hand-tied,” said Brian Wordes. Wordes, together with his son Matt Wordes and brother David Wordes, was busy baling hay using a 100-year-old hay press.

Brian said Matt had bought the hay press at auction last spring, and this was their first time working with it. Brian and David would feed hay into the top of the press, where it could be compressed into square bales.

The threshing show brought people together from across a wide area, all with an interest in farm equipment and other machinery. On Saturday afternoon, people filled bleachers to watch a parade of antique tractors, or walked around the grounds to check out museum displays and even some hands-on demonstrations.

While the full-sized threshers and hay press were at work outside, Dwight Speh had his own miniature version on display in the vendor hall. Speh, a Maynard resident, built a working model of an antique hay press from wood.

Speh said he got the idea after seeing an example of a model hay press on the internet.

“I thought I could do that,” he said. He worked using an illustration of an antique hay press.

“I started with the wheels,” Speh said. Then he moved on to the tongue and the frame of the press.

Speh said he made his own gear cutters to make working gears for the model. The whole thing was held together by 85 tiny wooden bolts. Speh held up an example of the bolts to show that they were actually threaded.

Speh said he spent about 500 hours building the model hay press.

Not all of the machines on display over the weekend were farm equipment. In one building on the museum grounds, several engines dating back to 1920s and 30s were up and running. Dustin Ehli said he came to Hanley Falls from Fargo to work on the engines for the threshing show. He spent part of a day oiling, cleaning and getting the engines ready to run.

Some of the biggest engines on display came from oil well service, while others came from places like grain elevators, Ehli said. Ehli said he liked getting the chance to maintain and run the big engines, and visitors were interested, too.

“We get a lot of different people who think it’s interesting to see them still operating,” he said.