Final View

Q: What does this machine do — and where can you find it?

A: You’ll find antique tractors like this one in Pioneer Village at the Indiana State Fair. David Pence of Bluffton is the owner of this 1916, steel-wheeled, 65-horsepower, steam-powered tractor. “It was a bucket of bolts when I got it. Took me 43 years to get it in shape,” he says. Pence, his son Matthew and his 15-year-old grandson run the tractor fueled by coal. It powers a saw used to cut down logs at the open-air sawmill.

The Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association has long helped preserve and tell the story of Indiana’s agricultural history at the Indiana State Fair with its agricultural museum collection. Support for the collection comes from the annual auction the last Saturday of the fair and donations to the Pioneer Village Restoration Fund.