Largest antique machinery show east of Mississippi kicks off Sept. 4
Steam engines lined up at a Nittany Antique Machinery Association show. Photo by Sandra Berkey.
By Matt Churella
CENTRE HALL — There is plenty of fun to be had for the whole family at the Nittany Antique Machinery Association’s 51st annual fall show, according to Larry Harpster, the association’s president.
The four-day event, featuring Allis Chalmers tractors this year, kicks off at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, with an opening prayer at Penn’s Cave and Wildlife Park, Centre County, and runs through Sunday afternoon.
Beginning at 10 a.m. each day, several pieces of equipment will be in operation — a sawmill, a cider press, a grist mill and a Corliss steam engine. A chainsaw carver will be on-site each day, making wooden sculptures for sale.
A tractor parade will commence at 11 a.m. each day. At noon, a whistle will be blown for lunch, with morning demonstrations resuming at 1 p.m., according to the fall show’s schedule of events.
Thursday through Saturday, tractor-pulling contests will begin at 5 p.m. There are steam engine pulls scheduled for after dark Friday and Saturday.
Tractor teeter totter, a game in which people drive gasoline and diesel tractors onto a teeter totter and test their skills to see whether they can balance large machinery on the platform, is returning as part of this year’s planned events, Harpster said.
“That kind of shows how good of an engineer you are if you can have the engine balance on that teeter totter,” Harpster said.
The show also features double decker bus rides, a toy building and museum for kids, a large flea market with vendors selling everything from spare tractor parts, clothes and homemade ice cream, bean soup and fresh roasted peanuts, Harpster said.
The antique machinery show was started in 1975 by Dick Markle and Russel Mark, who were both heavily interested in early gasoline engines and tractors, Harpster said.
Markle and Mark called Harpster and a few other volunteers, who met in January 1975 at the Ferguson Township Lions Club and decided to hold the show at Penn’s Cave the first weekend after Labor Day.
The first show was “a pretty good success,” Harpster said, noting an additional show is held in the spring, the weekend after Memorial Day.
The association features a different tractor every year, but attendees will see a variety of tractors — International Harvester, John Deere and others — on display at the show, Harpster said.
“With some of the other less-popular brands, we don’t get that many. But we generally have somewhere between 400 and 700 or 800 tractors here,” Harpster said.
The event has grown to be one of the largest antique machinery shows east of Mississippi and many improvements have been made to the show grounds over the years, according to the association’s website.
Daily admission is $10 or $25 for a four-day pass. Admission is free for children age 12 and under. The cost for people age 62 and older is $5 Thursday only. All active military personnel and veterans with military IDs are permitted free entry Friday only. On-site camping is available. Parking is free.