Longtime patron sees lull in festival turnout

Bob Klinkenberg hasn’t missed any of the McLouth Threshing Bee steam engine shows.

But after attending 45 shows, Klinkenberg, 74, of Tonganoxie, said he missed having to fight with 20,000 people for parking years ago.

Kenneth Kennedy, left, Kansas City, Kan., tosses a pitchfork of wheat into a threshing machine at the 45th annual McLouth Threshing Bee and steam engine show in McLouth. At right, Bob Klinkenberg, Tonganoxie, operates the thresher Saturday at the festival, which continues today. Kennedy, 75, said it had been about 60 years since he had last loaded a thresher.

“I can see the end coming,” he said. “It’s kind of sad.”

What began in 1957 as a gathering for steam engine enthusiasts continues today, but steam engines have given way to gas models. Many of the steam engines don’t meet inspection codes anymore. None of the about 70 tractors in the event’s daily parade are steam engines.

“But you got to realize that most steam engines were built in the 1910s,” Klinkenberg said. “The newest model is as old as me most likely and probably just as worn out.”

Klinkenberg, a steam engineer and farmer, said he returned for the McLouth Threshing Bee each year to see friends and has seen the show grow, plateau and now start to decline.

“I come because I can still see people I only see once a year,” Klinkenberg said. “I like to see these guys that grew up like I did in the heat and in the fields. But times are changing, and things aren’t like they used to be.”

Klinkenberg and his friends, who sat in the shade of a large tractor Saturday, remember when the McLouth Kiwanis served home-style thresher meals. Because of lower turnout, the club now serves hot dogs, bratwursts, ice cream, Sno-Cones and lots of water, said Ron Scott, a Kiwanis member. They last served fried chicken and potatoes that were peeled by hand in 1999.

Melinda Farr, secretary of the Heart of America Antique Steam Engine & Model Assn., said she expected about 4,000 to 5,000 people to attend the show, but that they were working to draw more people.

The McLouth Threshing Bee continues today with threshing demonstrations at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The tractor parade will be at 1:30 p.m. There are signs in McLouth to guide visitors to the events.

This year they added a hot rod and antique tractor pull.

“The show’s grown, but this year is kind of a rebuilding year,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of work to make it bigger.”