New museum tracks tractors
Story of John Deere, history of work showcased
Humans have been tilling the soil for around 12,000 years. For much of that time, the work was done by hand — and later with beasts of burden. Remarkably, it was only about six decades ago that tractors outnumbered horses on North American farms.
That story, and a whole lot more, is being told at the new John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, which will host its grand opening on June 13. And while the museum has many green and yellow farm implements, it leads with the history of work.
Rosa Grant, a Chicago native who is the museum’s curator, said the staff wanted to tell visitors the John Deere story from a different perspective.
“They come in expecting to learn about tractors and engines — which they do — but we tell it from the perspective of work, how everyone has to do it to live and survive,” said Grant, whose forebears farmed in Minnesota.
One illustration that grabbed my attention early on showed a pair of ancient Egyptians plowing a field. One man was pulling the plow, while the other guided it.
“For many thousands of years, people did work mostly by the power they had in their bodies,” Grant said as we walked through the museum, which included a hand-cranked wash tub. “Only within the past couple of hundred years have we started to use machines to help us with our work.”
Lest you have any doubt about the museum’s primary focus, however, one of the first things you see when you enter is a green and yellow 1924 Model D tractor, complete with steel lugs on its metal wheels for traction. It was the company’s longest production-run tractor, built by John Deere in Waterloo from 1923 to 1953.
Another winner was a display that put horsepower in human terms. A weight attached to a pulley — on which visitors can test their strength — illustrated 1/16 of horsepower. That was no sweat for me, and the 1/4 horsepower was relative easy, too. But the half-a-horse weight was difficult.
“We didn’t include a full horsepower because we didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” Grant said. “They did a prototype in the shop and no one could pull it. It really drives home the power of one of today’s big tractors that has 290 horsepower.”
The John Deere story starts in 1837 when Deere, a blacksmith, invented the self-scouring steel plow in Grand Detour, Ill. (just north of Dixon, Ill.). The plow allowed farmers to cut clean furrows through sticky Midwestern soil. It wasn’t until 1864 that Deere patented the molds for casting the plows. By then, the company was making other implements and had moved to Moline, Ill.
The company got into tractors in the early 20th century. The first attempt was the Dain All-WheelDrive, which Grant said was mechanically advanced, but too expensive for the market. In 1918, the company bought the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co., which made the respected Waterloo Boy tractor. Deere sold these machines using the Waterloo Boy name until 1923, when it switched the logo over to John Deere with the famed Model D tractor. Grant said that during the Great Depression, the company never repossessed any tractors, allowing farmers to make payments when able and earning their undying loyalty.
The John Deere colors were originally green, gold and red, with some implements painted at least partially red into the late 1930s. Eventually the company dropped the red color, though Grant said she was not sure why. There is no historical documentation, but legend has it that it was John Deere’s wife who chose the hues. She is said to have liked green because it represented the new growth of spring and gold because it reminded her of the harvest. Those distinct colors are trademarked, Grant said.
The largest room of the museum is filled with many tractors from the company’s past. Nearly all of them are owned by private collectors, who have restored them. They’re shown on a rotating basis to keep things fresh.
I grew up in eastern Iowa and my grandparents farmed into the 1960s. So I recognized a few of the tractors on display, including the 3010 model, which was first built 55 years ago.
A wall in the museum’s great room shows how the tractor-making process progresses from design to foundry to machining to assembling the finished products. Though the techniques have changed over time, Grant said, the four phases haven’t.
There’s also a circular, interactive display that tells the story of the museum’s location. The site has been used for manufacturing since 1902, and it was here that the Waterloo Gas Engine Co. put up its first building. A small, movable water tower links visitors to wall panels that tell about other John Deere factories in Waterloo. In the 1970s, they covered 7 million square feet and 150 acres of land. Today, the company still has thousands of employees in this city on the Cedar River.
The museum also has a display about workers’ lives that includes a well-worn woman’s assembly line uniform from World War II. It also covers the company’s labor history and a 1919 strike. Since then, relations between UAW Local 838 and John Deere have been good for the most part, Grant said.
The last room has a section on John Deere dealerships from the early days, including one from Cross Plains. This part of the museum also includes a huge 7290R model tractor that was produced in Waterloo less than a month ago. It dwarfs the other tractors on display, but Grant said it isn’t the biggest one produced by John Deere.
“It was just the largest one we could get in the building,” she said, noting that the oversized tractor has a jump seat, computer screen, GPS, refrigerator and other accouterments to make working long hours in the field more comfortable and efficient.
Grant, who knew little about tractors before she began working on the museum project several years ago, said she gets a kick out of watching people stroll through the museum.
“I love seeing people of all ages — from little kids to retirees and old farmers — learning about the John Deere story told in an unexpected way,” she said.
And in the process of working on the museum, she discovered a little about her own family history.
“My relatives in Chicago, while very happy for me, think it’s amusing that I work in a tractor factory museum,” she said with a chuckle. “But my grandmother, who grew up on a farm and passed away recently, thought it was wonderful.
“She told me her parents had a John Deere tractor, though she couldn’t remember which model. By talking to family members and digging around a bit, I found out that it was a 1937 Model B. I had no idea.”
The John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $8 for adults ages 13-61 and $4 for seniors, active duty military, John Deere employees and retirees. Children ages 12 and under are free with an adult. Guided tours are available for an additional $2. For details, call (319) 292-6126.
Other company attractions in the Midwest include the John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour, Ill. and the John Deere Pavilion in Moline.
For other things to see and do in the Waterloo area, call (319) 233-8350 or see
More information:
travelwaterloo.com.
Getting there:
Waterloo is about 260 miles southwest of Milwaukee via I-94, Highway 151 and Highway 20. Brian E. Clark is a Madison writer and photographer.