200 vintage tractors mark 39 years at SEMO Fair

Among the pack of roughly 200 restored large tractors, lawn tractors and other farming machinery sits Wayne Helderman’s red Massey-Harris 555D “wheatland” tractor next to a slick-wheeled 1924 Wallis.

The tractors will be on display through Friday, marking the Egypt Mills Antique Tractor Club’s 39th year at the SEMO District Fair in Cape Girardeau.

Helderman, 80, of Burfordville is what he describes as an “inactive member” of the 90-member Egypt Mills Antique Tractor Club — “I don’t come to the meetings; I just pay my money.”

Dave Powers, president of club, brought 32 lawn tractors this year, ranging from Cub Cadets to Moto-Mowers and Allis-Chalmers.

“I’ve got a bunch,” he said, pointing to other tractors scattered nearby, including one of Powers’ “unusual ones,” he said: a 1970 General Electric Elec-Trak lawn tractor with a removable three-motor 48-inch mowing deck. Instead of fuel, it depends on six golf-cart equivalent batteries. It can mow 2 acres per charge, he said.

But Helderman’s tractor, probably built back in the mid-’50s, he said, was the biggest tractor Massey built during that time.

“I call it a wheatland tractor,” he said, explaining it’s only good for “heavy work,” such as plowing and disking. “They all made about that type of size tractor. We featured Massey this year, so I brought it out.”

Helderman said he bought the shiny, rough-tired tractor “just like you see it” about 13 years ago.

Tires and rims to fit the tractor’s 34-inch wheels cost Helderman $2,600, he said, “and this has been like three or four years ago; today’s price would be higher than that.”

He said he and Powers see the club as more of a hobby.

“It’s not any different than buying a sailboat or a camper,” he said. “We choose this instead of that, see?”

And his Massey-Harris isn’t just for show during fair week. Helderman said he uses it to pull the wrecked derby cars off the fair’s demo derby track each year.

Helderman said the club members thrive on what they used to do, “not what we’re gonna do.”

“Us old people growed up with these tractors, see? A lot of these old tractors we drove when we was younger,” he said.

He said he and other members of the club like to display the tractors for one simple reason: “It brings a lot of people in that’s our age that want to see the old tractors.”

The group can be seen as a fraternity, he said, “But we just call it a club of people on the same ideas and we enjoy being together.”

Helderman said most all of the numerous tractors on display involved “a lot of work.”

“You sand and rub and paint and try to fix one of these tractors, you’ve got a lot of money in it,” he said, adding that’s the reason why fairgoers aren’t allowed on the tractors. “You can ruin a $2,000 paint job real quick.”

Powers said, “I’ve got members that like gas engines, I’ve got members that like to show, and I’ve got members that like tractor pulls. We’ve got a real variety of people.”

The SEMO District Fair continues through Saturday.

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