BELLE FOURCHE—A long line of antique tractors rolled into Belle Fourche on Thursday, September 11 around noon. They travelled in from the South and drove up Highway 85 to the Tri-State Museum and Center of the Nation Visitor Center to see the Center of the Nation Monument.
One by one each tractor turned into the parking lot of the Tri-State Museum and then lined up beside each other and parked. The members of the Tri-State Old Iron Association then turned off their machines and climbed down to the ground to explore what the area had to offer.
“Well, this is one of our many trips we made to the Black Hills—we’ve been in Belle Fourche before,” explained Jerome Mueller, President of Tri-State Old Iron Association. “A group of us come from Yankton. We truck them (tractors) out to Spearfish.”
On this trip, the club with over 200 members had 39 of them join the tractor parade. “Well, we started out with 39 yesterday—one petered out, so he’s following,” said Mueller.
Every year the club picks a place to explore. On this day, the group started in Spearfish, then went over to Beulah, Wyoming and then Belle Fourche before heading back to Spearfish.
That doesn’t seem like that long of a trip by car, but when you drive a tractor, it takes a bit longer! Mueller explained, “Well, we don’t go wide open, we go about thirteen to fourteen miles an hour.” His wife, Beverly travels with him and added, “You know, it’s so nice. You can see so many more things on the tractor!”
The club, Tri-State Old Iron Association, has been going strong for 19 years. They have been doing tractor rides for quite a few of those years. “One day we ride in the pines, the next day we kind of ride in the plains,” said Mueller. “We’ve started at Custer, we’ve started at Hill City, we’ve started in Sturgis, and this year was Spearfish’s turn,” added Beverly. “We knew this was here—we’ve been here before!”
And with that, each driver hopped back on his tractor and one by one left the Tri-State Museum parking lot. Turning back onto Highway 85, the traffic stopped for them to let them all pass by. The group headed to Stadium Sports Grill for lunch before heading back to Spearfish.
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