Flour City and Big Four Tractors Reclaimed From Rust

Flour City and Big Four Tractors Reclaimed From Rust “My friend Chris Romnes could sniff out an old tractor two or three states away,” says Steve Bauer of Hastings, Minn. “So when he told me about a pile of parts from a 1911 Flour City tractor more than 300 miles away in Nebraska, we had to check it out.” Bauer says he and Romnes could hardly believe their eyes when they saw the stripped frame of the Flour City, with its rusty parts scattered all around beneath it. “The frame and its parts had been lying in that pasture since 1945,” Bauer says. “The owner had parked it there several years before, and during WWII, government officials were traveling the countryside looking for scrap metal to convert into ammunition. The farmer agreed to dismantle the tractor, and officials said that, in a few weeks, they’d bring torches to cut apart anything that couldn’t be unbolted. That was in early August, but the torches didn’t arrive because the war had ended. The frame and parts lay there for 47 years, even as other family members took over the farm.” The rusted heap didn’t stop Bauer and Romnes because they’d already begun restoring a kerosene-powered Big Four tractor. “We figured we might as well work on both at the same time, so we bought the parts from the family of the farmer who’d bought the tractor new,” Bauer says. Over the next five years, Bauer, along with Chris, his father Maynard, and Ray Nicolai Jr., brought both tractors back to life. “We sandblasted parts, made parts and located a piston in Iowa for the Flour City that Chris and Maynard used to forge a new manifold. The engines were completely frozen, so the blocks were honed and the crankshafts were ground. Chris and Maynard restored both engines. They’ve been running strong for 25 years at our Little Log House Power Show in late July and a few weeks later during the 12-day Minnesota State Fair,” Bauer says. “They’re important to Minnesota agricultural heritage because they were both built in Minneapolis during the early 1900s.” The 40-70 tractor was the first of four Flour City models built in 1911. This 21,000 lb. behemoth features enormous 8-ft. dia. traction wheels with a 24-in. face. Large steel-spoked front wheels support the rugged I-beam main frame. It houses the Kinnard-Haines 4-cyl. engine along with numerous shafts and gears. The 7 1/2 by 9-in. bore-and-stroke engine runs on kerosene fuel and produces 53 drawbar horsepower.  The Gas Traction Company in Minneapolis built the Big 4 Thirty tractor. Its design is similar to the Flour City. In 1912, the company was sold to a Rockford, Ill., company that was eventually purchased by J.I. Case in 1928. Bauer says, “These giant tractors from Minneapolis companies were used to break the virgin grasslands of the central United States and parts of Canada. Both tractors could pull 7 or 8-bottom plows and turn over 40 acres or more in a day.” The 40-70 they found in Nebraska had been shipped there by rail in 1911 and remained on the same farm until Bauer and Romnes purchased the parts. Both tractors are now prominent fixtures at the Little Log House farm near Hastings, Minn. They join several other vintage tractors, including a 1908 Hart Parr 30-60 Old Reliable and a single-cylinder 1911 Fairbanks Morse 15-30 that, for many years, operated a sawmill in the Canadian northwoods. Bauer has two buildings full of gas engines on permanent display, all of them running during the annual Log House Antique Power Show in late July. “We started out nearly 40 years ago with a two-room log house in the oak trees, and today the grounds have more than 50 permanent vintage buildings, gas stations, railroad equipment, a 50s drive-in restaurant, and hundreds of tractors, implements, fire engines and military equipment on display during the show.” Throughout the year, the show site hosts weddings and special events at a restored church and event center. Bauer has always enjoyed finding, renovating and restoring old engines and tractors. “It’s been a lifelong passion that we’re able to share with visitors to our Log House show site and also at the Minnesota State Fair. Those big tractors always draw a lot of attention.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steve Bauer, Little Log House Antique Power Show, 13746 220th St. E., Hastings, Minn. 55033 (ph 651-437-2693; www.littleloghouseshow.com).

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