Western Illinois Threshers show starts next week

HAMILTON - The 57th annual Western Illinois Threshers Bee and Antique Show will begin on Friday, Aug. 2, near Hamilton, and continues with three days of demonstrations and activities on Aug. 3 and 4.
Throughout each day demonstrations and exhibits are planned. Steam engines are used to power threshing machines and the large and small saw mills. A large collection of rail handcars is exhibited, and rail motor car rides are available on the track around the grounds.
This year’s show highlights the lesser-known Graham Bradley tractor line and Sears engines. Parades of antique cars, trucks, tractors and steam engines brought by exhibitors will run through the grandstand at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
A full dinner is offered each evening at 6 p.m. for $10. Friday night is a ribeye steak, potato salad and baked beans. Saturday features smoked pork chops, au gratin potatoes and green beans. Food vendors are set up all around the grounds during the day with many kinds of foods.
Entertainment Friday night is an antique tractor pull in the grandstand, followed with music by Bocephus Wayne on the stage at about 8 p.m. On Saturday evening hear music by Hearsay Band during and after the pork chop supper. The quilt auction is at 8 p.m. Saturday, followed with more music.
Friday’s schedule starts with tractor games at 9 a.m. in the grandstand. A kids’ pedal tractor pull is planned at 3 p.m., and an antique tractor pull at 6 p.m. in the grandstand.
Saturday begins with a pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. There will be pony pulling at 8 a.m. at the grandstand, and an antique tractor pull at 10 a.m. In the afternoon, see tractor games at noon in the grandstand, and horse plowing at 1 p.m. in the field. The antique tractor and car parade begins at 3 p.m.
Sunday begins with a pancake breakfast at 7 a.m. and worship in the country church at 8:30 a.m. There is another antique tractor pull at 9:30 a.m. and horse plowing at 1 p.m.  Keith Yex and crew offer fun and games for kids at the grandstand at 1:30 p.m. before the second antique tractor and car parade at 3 p.m.
The raffle tractor is an Allis Chalmers WD. Winners of the antique tractor, handmade quilt, pedal tractor and other prizes will be announced after Sunday’s parade. The 50th show history book, dedicated to Fred Buckert and outlining the origin and growth of the Western Illinois Threshers, is still available at the show.
Again this year are sessions of Bingo throughout the weekend in the large shelter house
Work continues on the 1850s circa Bolton Barn, that is being rebuilt on the grounds. The barn from rural Nauvoo was disassembled by Bolton family descendants and other volunteers
See sheep shearing, rock crushing, corn shelling and corn meal grinding, pony-powered threshing, small gas engines, quilting and rug weaving. The growing village on the 80-acre grounds includes two log cabins, a church, one-room school, a print shop, blacksmith and a post office.
There is an antique gas station, two large museum buildings, and two renovated TP& W depots. Many of the buildings have histories of their own, being moved onto the grounds from the region. A flea market fills the northeast end of the grounds during the show.
Fun for kids includes a petting zoo, hands-on corn shelling, playground at the school yard, the pedal pull on Friday afternoon, and old time games at the grandstand on Sunday.
Camping hook-ups of 20 and 30 amps are available. Golf carts/ATVs are not rented on the grounds, but are allowed. Owners must register their vehicles, and pay a $20 fee at the headquarters building upon arrival at the show.
A $5 commemorative button allows admission for all three days to those 12 years and older. Children under 12 are admitted free. Buttons are now on sale at Harnetiaux Farm Store just east of Hamilton and are sold at the gate during the show.
To find the Western Illinois Threshers Show, turn north at the signs in Hamilton, IL, at North 19th Street, and continue on the blacktop two miles north. Parking is free.
For more information about this summer’s event, call President Ed Hartweg, 319-795-2982, or go to www.westernillinoisthreshers.org.