Harvesting heritage
Threshing Days offer a glimpse of Mennonite past
Staff writer
A threshing and farm equipment show 52 years strong will be Aug. 1 and 2 in Goessel.
Goessel’s Country Threshing Days will be at the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum. Gates will open at noon Aug. 1.
Threshing Days offers an up close look at farming techniques and equipment used by Mennonite settlers who came from Russia in 1874 and settled in the area. They brought with them Turkey Red winter wheat, which soon dominated wheat production in Kansas.
This year’s Threshing Days, presented by the Wheat Heritage Engine and Threshing Co. along with the museum, will feature Massey Ferguson and Massey Harris equipment.
Farmers will bring tractors, antique and new, to the event from all over the state.
Tractors will be started up for festival-goers to see.
Threshing Days entertainment will start with a performance at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 by the Field Boss duo from Dodge City. Nathan Adamson and
Nash Griggs will perform songs from the 1930s to modern times.
The music will be in Goessel High School auditorium and donations to benefit the museum will be accepted.
Saturday’s activities will start with a downtown parade at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 2 followed by a Low German meal served at Goessel Elementary School from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a bierocks and barbecue beef meal from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Preparatory School on the museum grounds.
The eight-building museum includes the Friesen House, Turkey Red Wheat Palace, Schroeder Barn, Krause House, Goessel State Bank, an immigrant house replica and museum store, South Bloomfield one-room school, and a 1908 prep school.
A $7 button buys admission for people ages 13 and older. Children 12 and younger are admitted free.
Admission includes entry into the museum.
Life in central Kansas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries was all about farming and farm life. The tools used then will be on display.
The Wheat Palace is a two-room metal building covering about a quarter-acre, and is the home of numerous farm-related tools, machinery, and equipment. Together, they show the progression of farm mechanization from the 1800s to the mid-1960s, from primitive scythes and threshing stones to combines.
Museum director and curator Fern Bartel said an art show on display in the museum would feature the newspaper cartoon art of Goessel resident Ferd Graevs.
She noted that people should dress to be cool.
“It’s always 110 degrees in the shade,” she said. “People enjoy seeing the old-timey stuff.”
More information is available at (620) 367-8200.