If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.


– Rudyard Kipling

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61st Antique Tractor & Steam Engine Show

July 20 @ 9:00 AM - July 23 @ 5:00 PM

$4 – $8

Join us for the Will County Threshermen’s Association’s 61st Annual Antique Tractor & Steam Engine Show Featuring Minneapolis-Moline & Single Cylinder Engines 🚜
🤩 Fun for the whole family! 🤩
♨️ working steam engines
✂ steam powered sawmill
🚜 daily parade of power
⚙️ tractor and machinery exhibits
🌾 fieldwork demonstrations
🍔 food and concessions
🧶 craft, vendor and flea market
🚜 antique tractor pull
🚜 garden tractor pull
🚜 kids tractor pull
🌟 kids activities
🐴 horse and wagon rides
🐑 petting zoo
🎶 Frankfort Brass Band live music
☀ Civil War Living History exhibit
and more!
*Fieldwork and tractor pulls are weather permitting.
View our schedule at: https://www.steamshow.org/schedule
🎟 Admission is $8 per Adult and $4 per Child (ages 2-11) daily. Cash only and there is no ATM onsite.
🕰 Show hours are 9AM – 5PM daily
🗓 Dates: July 20 – 23, 2023
🌧 Rain or Shine! 🌞
✅ Location: Spiess Farm 14151 W. Arsenal Rd. Manhattan, IL 60442
More questions? Check our FAQ Page: https://www.steamshow.org/annual-show-faqs
If you would like to get involved as a volunteer, sponsor or more please email [email protected]
Sponsor Info Packet: https://www.steamshow.org/sponsorinfo
Visit our website for more information: www.steamshow.org
Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @WillCountyThresh
Craft / Vendors / Flea Market inquires contact: Kim (708) 502-8880 [email protected]
The Will County Threshermen’s Association (WCTA) is a 501(c)(3) organization serving the greater Will County, Illinois area. Members of WCTA share their interest and passion for agriculture, engines, steam engines, tractors, and machinery. We welcome the public to our annual show to see what engines and tractors looked like many years ago, how equipment has changed, and how farming practices have modernized. Our area has a rich agricultural history, we invite you to come and share it with us! Supporting our organization through event attendance and donations enables us to continue to preserve the history of our community.
A brief history of WCTA’s Annual Show: In August of 1963, Ray Kestel originated a yearly threshing bee on the Ed Kestel farm in Will County, Illinois. In subsequent years, the show was held at the Ray Kestel farm, three mile south of New Lenox, Illinois. On February 15, 1966, Ray called a meeting to propose that an organization be formed to support the annual show celebrating old-time agricultural methods. The forty-five men in attendance approved Ray’s plan, and the Will County Threshermen’s Association was born. Ray served as the club’s president for its first five years. The organization’s purpose is to honor and preserve America’s agricultural legacy. It is especially appropriate that Will County host such an association, to preserve a significant chapter in American history that took place here.
WCTA continues to commemorate America’s agricultural heritage by having an annual show in Will County, Illinois. Long-time friends of the organization remember that, in its early years, the show took place at the Fred Francis 4-H Field in New Lenox, Illinois. At the fourth annual show, twenty-five acres of oats were fed through a steam-powered thresher while plowing with oxen, horses and steam engines making history come to life. By the 1970’s, the show had grown and moved to the Peotone Fairgrounds. Later, it moved to Burns Woods, and in 2004, to the Dollinger Farm. In 2013 and 2014, the show was held at the Round Barn Farm Park, in Manhattan, Illinois, the area where the show had first begun. The association at present is holding its annual show on the Steve Spiess Farm in Manhattan, Illinois near Wilton Center.