We got great news from the Heidrick Collection that the Holt 120, Best 30 Orchard Tractor (Humpback) and the Cat 10 expo model will be traveling to Santa Margarita from their home base at the California Agricultural Museum for the Best of the West 2017 ACMOC National Show. Thank you to Lorili Ostman Executive Director, Board Member Doug Veerkamp and Board Member Dan Best for making this happen. Please see the press release below.

California Agriculture Museum & Event Center
Home of the Heidrick Tractor Collection
1962 Hays Lane, Woodland, CA 95776  530.666.9700 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2017

CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE MUSEUM RECEIVES GRANT AWARD FROM CALIFORNIA HUMANITIES

WOODLAND, CALIF – California Humanities has recently announced the 2017 Humanities For All Quick Grant awards. The California Agriculture Museum has been awarded $4,509.50 for its project entitled “History in Motion”.
The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities. Grants are awarded to projects that give expression to the extraordinary variety of histories and experiences of California’s places and people to ensure that the stories can be shared widely. These narratives help us find our commonalities, appreciate our differences, and learn something new about how to live well together.

The California Agriculture Museum is developing a traveling exhibit that will develop an appreciation for the advances and cooperation between early California pioneers by comparing broadsheets and advertisements from about 1917 and 2016. Guests attending the Best of the West Show ( www.BestoftheWestShow.com ) on Memorial Day weekend (May 26th-28th) – nominated as this year’s national Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club (ACMOC) show -- will have an opportunity to see rare antique tractors, harvesters, military equipment, trains, and planes in motion. The California Agriculture Museum and the Fred C. Heidrick Family will roll in with the 1913 Best 30 high drive, a 1929 Caterpillar 10 Expo, and the Holt 120 crawlers. “This is the first time since 2008 that these vehicles have operated under their own power” says Doug Veerkamp, Chair of the traveling exhibit for the California Agriculture Museum. More than $16,500 has been donated to make “History in Motion” possible. Digital files of historical documents have been donated by Caterpillar Archives. More than 6,000 guests will attend to talk to culture bearers and collectors. You’ll see several hundred antique vehicles transported from across the nation in what we expect to be a spectacular performance similar to Woodland’s Best Show on Tracks in 2008.”

“Everyone participates in the humanities in one way or another, and everyone has something to share to help us better understand and appreciate each other,” noted Tricia Wynne, Chair of the board of California Humanities. “Our new Humanities for All Quick Grants program is a way to make support for public humanities programs more accessible across the state of California, amplifying voices we may not often hear.”

Since 2003, the California Humanities has supported close to 500 story projects and granted more than $4 million to enable communities to voice, record, and share histories – many previously untold or little known. Through video, photography, murals, zines, documentary theater, audio projects, and more, these collected stories have been shared with broad audiences, both live and virtual. California Humanities is an independent non-profit state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information on California Humanities, please visit www.calhum.org .

The California Agriculture Museum is home to the nation's most unique collection of tractors and agriculture artifacts -- telling the history of farm-to-fork. The museum is dedicated to enhancing understanding and appreciation of California's rich cultural heritage through the presentation of its collection and rotating exhibits. The museum's core collection was established by Fred C Heidrick Senior and consists of rare examples of tractors, harvester, horse-drawn wagons, and other artifacts that tell the California Story.



This is going to be a great show that you will not want to miss. There will be more announcements are we near show time.

Tom

Hi, Tom.
Thanks for the update and the press release. Lookin' better-n-better.

Just my 0.02.

Billy and I met at Jack Ranch last Sunday for a nice breakfast, then ambled over to Santa Margarita to drop off a few things. I had the 966 loader (one of the behind the scenes show workhorses) and Daron's recently acquired very nice Allis Chalmers M (I know, off topic. Don't read it if you don't like it).

Billy still had our new Directors four auction finds on his truck. We unloaded and lined them up, ready for Mr. Jacobs to show up and get them running. I offered to loan him tools, but warned him he has to supply his own dirty clothes. We can take bets on how many he'll have running by the end of the show.

The wildflowers were beautiful, the usual herd of several dozen elk were grazing at the intersection of Highway 41 and 46, it was just a lovely day.

Pete.

GP---I see your lifting chains are looped thru the sprocket and the idler---any concerns that the idler hold down plates would hold the load???

Hi, JanM.
I have encountered folk on both your side of the puddle and mine with that same dis-ease - just that we have different terminology for it DowNunda. LOL.

Just my 0.02.

Dunno, Dan. I never thought about that, which is the danger when you have an accountant doing the rigging!

I just copied what I've seen other people do when rigging these small Cats for lifting. I guess we all figured that if everything was O. K., the idler and mounts should be designed to handle ramming the tractor into or over stuff, so they should be able to handle lifting the weight of the tractor. I think we also figured that by chaining around the track plate, rail and idler or sprocket, we've caught as many pieces as we can in case something breaks.

For example, if we just chained to the track pad and a pad bolt broke, we'd probably drop that corner. By going around the track chain, we've got that carrying the load. A pad might come loose, but the track chain should support the tractor. By including the idler or sprocket in the wrap of the chain, if we have a loose track chain or failure, the idler or sprocket should carry the load.

I never really considered that the idler mounts can be worn and might pop out of the track frame. Thinking about it now, I guess the worst that would happen is the track frame would drop down but I would think it would only fall until the track looped around and the roller frame should still be resting upon the bottom track chain and plates. In that situation, I guess that hypothetically the frame could pop out one side or the other of the track chain and you could drop that whole side of the tractor.

I'm sure there is a proper and legal way to rig these for lifting and I'm sure we're not using it. I'm famous for finding the most creative, difficult and dangerous way to do anything. Mostly that happens because I'm too dumb to figure out the easy and safe way, which is usually obvious to everyone else around. That is one of the reasons not to have anyone standing under or near these tractors while we're lifting them. Hopefully we always do it such that the worst that can happen is a dropped and damaged tractor and a big divot in the ground. No soft pink parts anywhere near where things could fall or shoot off to.

Yours is a good observation and something I'll think about the next time we're rigging to lift like this.

Hope to see you at Santa Margarita.

Pete.