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Steam engine expo returns this weekend
Steam WEB 1
Mickey Skelton unloads a 1947 Earthmaster tractor, one of dozens of pieces of power equipment that will be on display at the fairgrounds Friday and Saturday. - photo by Jim Dean

 

Antique tractors, steam engines and other agricultural equipment will fill the Cumming Fairgrounds today and Saturday during the Cumming Steam, Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Exposition.

The event, in its 10th year, is put on by the Cumming Antique Power Club. Organizer Michael Moore said it draws a big crowd each time.

“We see a lot of people coming back year after year,” he said. “It’s a good family-oriented show … you’ll see a lot of grandparents bring their grandkids out, showing them the way things used to be.”

Moore said the event, which draws exhibitors from “all over the country,” will feature anywhere from “100 to 300 hit-and-miss engines,” or early combustion engines from the 1900s, as well as “100 to 200 tractors and 10 to 20 steam engines.”

There will also be demonstrations of the fairgrounds’ cotton gin, saw mill and other antique equipment, as well as a number of food vendors.

“We like to celebrate the ways people used to do things back in the old days and look at [how] agriculture has progressed,” Moore said.

At 3 p.m. Saturday, there will also be a “Parade of Power.”

“That gives everybody a chance to see all the tractors and steam engines as they move around the fairgrounds,” Moore said.

Moore said one of the club’s oldest members, Rosco Thomas, will be honored Saturday.

“We usually have a cake or some little celebration for his birthday,” Moore said. “He’ll turn 97 on Sunday.”