The final North Iowa Tractor Ride
A rolling reunion of vintage tractors and the families they bring together
QUASQUETON — It was a perfect day to load up the family in the tractor and go for a ride in the countryside.
More than one entry in the 2024 North Iowa Tractor Ride carried an elaborate passenger compartment, with seats pulled out of minivans and attached to the backs of vintage tractors in homemade getups.
That’s how Todd Cash’s daughter Madalynn Cash and granddaughter Lyla Behr got to ride with him and his John Deere 620. Cash, of Clear Lake, and family were in the second shift to come in to downtown Quasqueton on Friday during the noon hour.
This year’s North Iowa Tractor Ride, the 17th, is also its last. The T-shirts call it “The Last Hoorah!”
Jim Coloff, president of Coloff Media, said that while the ride has been a “way to celebrate farm economy and rural lifestyle,” it was “just time for us as a company to move on to different activities and challenges.” Coloff Media, which organized the ride, owns multiple radio stations in north-central Iowa.
The North Iowa Tractor Ride has mostly stayed true to its name, but it did routes from Pella in 2023 and in Boone and Webster counties in 2017. In 2019, the routes originated from Froelich in Clayton County, the very birthplace of the gasoline-powered traction engine. This year’s route was based in Vinton with visits to Brandon, Rowley, Quasqueton, Troy Mills, Center Point, Urbana, Mount Auburn, and La Porte City.
Another way to make a tractorcade a family affair is with multiple tractors. Brothers Ralph and Greg Mohwinkle are president and vice president of Rivers and Bluffs Classic Tractors, which has about 90 members. Vivian Mohwinkle of Aplington has been married to Ralph for 57 years and got him to buy her a 1957 Allis-Chalmers D14, although he’s the one doing the driving.
The nameplate for Greg and Cathy Mohwinkle’s 1967 Oliver 550 says Eitzen, Minnesota, but it carries an Iowa flag on the back. Their mailing address is New Albin but they can’t get to or from anywhere without crossing the state line. That’s just the way things are in Allamakee County, or as they call it, “God’s country.” Greg estimated that they’d put 600 miles on the tractor this year alone. In 2021, the Rivers and Bluffs club did a three-state tour by crossing the bridge at Lansing into Wisconsin.
Tina Snyder of Winthrop does her driving on the 1958 Farmall 460 that she was raised on, “the rock-picking tractor.” She and her parents, Lois and Charles Tempus of Aurora (and also Florida), couldn’t pass up this ride going through their stomping grounds.
Lois Tempus spent part of her break talking to the women who opened the Quasqueton Area Historical Society building during the event. “I used to haul all their kids to ball games.” She became a bus driver for the East Buchanan school district to help get her family through the farm crisis. Through a chance encounter with Snyder’s cousin’s son, they were able to buy back their 1962 John Deere 4010 decades after it had been sold. Now Charles drives that tractor and Lois rides behind in style. (That’s them, preceded by Tina, at the midpoint of the below video.)
There are two other, larger moving showcases of vintage tractors in Iowa: WMT’s Great Eastern Iowa Tractorcade, which had its 25th anniversary ride in June, and WHO’s Great Iowa Tractor Ride, which has traveled around central Iowa for 27 years. The WMT Tractorcade was featured in the New York Times in 2008. But Mike Meyers of Luxemburg likes the smaller size of the North Iowa ride — 140 tractors instead of 500.
While most of the tractors are red or green, Zach Clark of Burchinal wanted something different. He painted his great-grandfather’s 1940 Farmall H black. It had taken him six months to restore it and found more problems than he thought. After a ride in the Mason City area in 2022, he had his fix of rides for a while, but was back for this one. He enjoys seeing all the tractors gathered and going down the road.
That was a common theme expressed by the riders, who were sad to see this event end.
“I was disappointed it’s the last,” Meyers said.
“Our riders love seeing the countryside,” Coloff said.
“Part of the fun of the tractor rides is the people,” Vivian Mohwinkle said.
“It’s the people. You may know a face, or a tractor, but not the name,” Snyder said.
Finally, if you’ve always wondered but never had the chance to ask, it’s pronounced Quas-quittin’, not Quasq-eatin’, but everyone just calls it “Quasky.”
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