Antique Power Club to host annual convention during Colony Days

WASILLA — To watch someone “light up” over something — whether over family, a pet, an outdoor adventure — is always a fun conversation. Get members of the Antique Power Club of Alaska talking about tractors, and the term takes on a unique dimension.

These folks love to talk about tractors and other machinery — the older the better. Sawmills. Plows. Threshing machines. Feed grinders. It’s an appreciation for a bygone era, or for some, a tangible connection to the past.

The local group will get a chance to show off its collection and the state as well next weekend, as the Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Association has chosen the Valley to host its annual convention, planned in conjunction with Colony Days June 11-12. The Alaska group is Branch 52 of the national organization, said event organizer Mike Pollock.

“Obviously we are excited to be able to host the event. We have around 95 confirmed reservations from around the country,” said Pollock, an Anchorage resident who was one of the earliest members of the club, which celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year. Fairbanks also has a group.

The national organization has some 200 chapters.

“At Branch 52, we are one of the older members,” Pollock said.

Pollock said the power club has a full agenda planned for the weekend, including the group’s annual participation in the Colony Days parade on Saturday. The group also will have an equipment display and tractor pull.

On Saturday night, the national group will meet for a dinner at the Palmer Depot.

“The Palmer Chamber of Commerce has been really helpful in helping us plan this,” Pollock said. “We’ll have a catered dinner and some presentations for the guests on the area’s colony history and Valley agriculture.”

On Sunday, the events and even more displays move to the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry, which is offering free admission.

Pollock said the power club’s membership continues to grow, and the group is looking to increase its involvement in shows and displays. They participate in Anchorage’s Fur Rendezvous parade, hold a plow day each spring — usually at John Hett’s Butte property — and participate in other shows. Their biggest presence is at the Alaska State Fair, where Pollock said the group was looking to expand.

“They (the fair) have been trying to get back to the roots of state fairs with a more agricultural presence,” Pollock said. “We have had a display there for 10 years and last year in particular we had 39 tractors, a sawmill, a tractor pull and all sorts of evens. This year they have given us even more real estate and we are going to have a bigger display. It has kind of become the crown jewel of our events.”

Pollock is mainly a Farmall man. He said he has 15 tractors: one Massey Harris, two John Deeres and the rest are the familiar red Farmalls. He said it is sometimes hard to describe his interest in the machinery.

“It is a fascination, a link to the past,” Pollock said. “I have the same tractor at home that my dad bought when he was a senior in high school. There is just something about them. When we are in the parades, you just watch people’s mouths — you can’t always hear what they’re saying — but they will mouth ‘my dad had one just like that.’

“Sometimes I just like to go out and sit on them,” Pollock added. “I do that with my dad’s tractor. It may sound crazy but I grew up with it.”

Incoming club president Richard Greeno has lived in the woods of Point MacKenzie for 37 years, and like Pollock, has a love of restoring machinery. Along with his more than 15 tractors, Greeno and his father George have rebuilt a sawmill that Richard said likely was used in the Alaska territory’s railroad camps. The tractor-powered mill will be on display and ripping cottonwood logs at the transportation museum Sunday, Greeno said.

“The blade we use in it was my wife’s grandfather’s,” he said. “And we believe it was used to mill the scaffolding during the construction of Mount Rushmore.

“This is what the power club is all about. We have threshing machines restored. We are always looking for old machinery and tractors from the colony days.”

In fact, an old Ford tractor lurking in the brush of Greeno’s property turned out to be a unique find.

“I went to this garage sale way out in Knik, and there it was,” he said. “So I bought it and it turns out that it is a rare Ford, made for the military as a push-pull tractor.”

While Pollock favors Farmalls, Greeno and his father George are Allis-Chalmers men. George turns 84 on Saturday, Richard said, and the pair enjoy rebuilding tractors together. The family originally came from Wisconsin, and collected and refurbished tractors there as well. Richard has one of his grandfather’s Allis-Chalmers models.

Last week Richard was working on the final pieces in the restoration of a rare 1937 Minneapolis-Moline tractor.

“This is all a pure hobby, nobody is getting rich off of it,” Richard said. “It’s like guys who restore classic cars. That can get expensive. Tractors aren’t as bad, but it depends.”

Greeno said the social aspect of the power club also is a draw.

“It is always fun in our meetings when the green guys (John Deere,) red guys (Farmall) and orange guys (Allis-Chalmers) all get into some back-and-forth on the better tractor,” Greeno said. “It’s a camaraderie.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com