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Stone-Age Tractor Made Out of Junk
Traffic slows down as it moves past Kenny Moore's farm near Dresden, Ohio. Moore says drivers are trying to identify the parts he used to build the "stone-age" tractor mounted on a concrete pedestal in his yard.
It all began when Moore and his wife, Jerry, were sprucing up the place for their daughter's wedding in 1987. They ended up with a pile of junk that included large wheels that once formed the base of a child's teeter-totter and large concrete building stones, as well as other odds and ends. As he looked at the stuff, he realized he had the makings of a "stone-age" tractor sculpture.
Instead of hauling the junk away, he arranged it on an old silo foundation near the road and searched for more discarded parts until he had everything he needed.
The rear wheels on the tractor are from a threshing machine, a length of oil pipe casĦing forms the smokestack, a Witter pump from an old windmill became the whistle and piston, and the steering wheel and seat are from an old McCormick Deering tractor. After he thought he had finished his masterpiece, Moore found an old grind-stone in a shed that became the flywheel.
Moore has other unusual home-built tractors, including a half-scale model of a 1919 2040 Rumeley tractor that he and his sons made from scratch. The model is so authentic looking that when he exhibits it at the county fair some people think he's got a rare Rumeley model no one's ever seen before.


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1991 - Volume #15, Issue #6