STATENVILLE — Antique Farm-Alls, Fords and John Deeres dotted a field Saturday in Echols County.
The Alapahoochee Historic and Farm Heritage Days got farmers out of their fields and townsfolk away from the city for several days of tractor pulling and flea market haggling fun.
Started seven years ago by Vernon Culpepper, the event honors the area’s agricultural heritage.
Vern Schultz, a Michigan native, showed off his modified Ford Log Skidder on Saturday.
From September to late April, Schultz travels around the South setting up his trailer filled with tractor manuals at various shows.
Schultz said the trailer contained about 1,200 manuals. At home he has around 12,000, he said.
The idea to sell the manuals, which he prints himself, came after visiting shows and hearing people talk about needing a manual for a certain machine.
“I would tell them that I had it back home and that I would print it for them,” Schultz said.
He estimates that he attends about 42 shows a year. After Alapahoochee, Schultz said, he will begin the trek back to Michigan where he will work shows during the summer.
Then in September he will head back South.
Schultz said he started coming to Alapahoochee after meeting Culpepper at another festival. He’s now been coming for four years to both the spring and fall event.
Pat Allen from Lansing, Mich., travels with Schultz and had managed to sell a daschund puppy during the festival. The puppy, offspring of her two daschunds, was born on Valentine’s Day, she said.
Allen said she loves coming to the festival in Echols.
“This is the nicest show, the people are so friendly,” Allen said. “You definitely get that Southern hospitality here.”
Arts, crafts and antiques of all shapes and sizes were on sale at the event.
Rodney and his wife Janie Parker from Lowndes County have been coming to the festival for three years.
Parker had a variety of odd and ends for sale, including numerous cast-iron skillets he has picked up over the years.
“I’ve sold several of those today,” he said.
Parker said he and his wife look forward to coming to the Alapahoochee.
“It just has a relaxing atmosphere,” he said.
Across the field, past a sea of antique tractors of various shapes and sizes, people sat in the grandstands to watch the tractor pull.
Teresa Fletcher from Macclenny, Fla., sat on her 1953 Oliver 88 awaiting her turn at the pull.
A tractor pull involves a tractor hitching up to a iron sled with weights on it. As the tractor pulls the sled the weights move, increasing the amount of weight the tractor has to pull.
Fletcher, a member of the North Florida Antique Power Association, said she found out about the event from members who had attended previously.
Though neither Fletcher nor her husband farm, antique tractors and tractor pulls have become a way of life.
“My husband is from up north and he grew up on a farm, so he did this all his life,” Fletcher said. “We bought a tractor and started going to shows and we haven’t been able to stop.”
Fletcher’s four sons have also caught the tractor bug, she said.
Though the family only has her Oliver 88 right now, their are plans to purchase another one in the near future, she said.
“We love restoring tractors and we like to plow,” she said. “It helps let kids know where their food comes from. It’s addictive.”
The Macclenny-based organization she belongs to will have its own show, Back to the Farm, from May 1-2 at the Glen St. Mary’s Nursery, she said.
Across from the tractor pulling, Earl’s Well Drilling and Pump Service had set up a miniature oil rig. The device steadily pumped oil out of the ground and was being sold in plastic bottles.
Vern’s Kitchen sold food to guests, while others listened to traditional blue grass music. The festival is a free event, with electric and water hook-ups for RV’s costing $7.50 per day.
Culpepper got the idea for a heritage festival after attending other tractor shows and pulls.
The name for the event stems from the fact that the Alapahoochee River runs through Culpepper’s property.
The fall show is scheduled for Oct. 30-31.
Local News
Related Photos
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David Syner uses his 1944 Farmall 'H' to pull a mechanical tractor pull sled as Todd Woodfield keeps a watchful eye during the Alapahoochee Historic and Farm Heritage Days in Echols County Saturday.
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Spectators watch as a John Deere pulls a mechanical tractor pull sled down a track Saturday during the Alapahoochee Historic and Farm Heritage Days in Echols County.
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Earl Muffett tinkers with an antique single-cylinder water cooled Harvester International engine, powering an oil well jack, during the Alapahoochee Historic and Farm Heritage Days in Echols County Saturday.
Discussion
Farm Heritage Days
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