South Central Threshing Association To Celebrate 50th Anniversary Sept. 6 & 7
It all started in 1975 at a community meeting in Braddock, when plans were being made to celebrate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976. Someone suggested the event should include a threshing demonstration. That’s when two local farmers offered an Aultman-Taylor tractor and a threshing machine from the early part of the 20th Century for the event. Neighbors helped get the machines in running order, and oats was threshed first in the fall of 1975 and then again at the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration in Braddock.
Sportsmen coveted the big straw pile left by the threshing operation and used it to foster the pheasant population. That expanded interest in having an annual threshing event to build the pheasant population and to attract more hunters to the area. However, the threshing show is all about antique farm equipment, the restoration of decades old machines, and live demonstrations of pioneer farming. History comes alive at the threshing grounds!
The threshing tradition has continued every year, and the event has gone from a threshing machine and a tractor in a field southeast of town to a few more machines and more people in a field northeast of town. Now, the show has its own 23-acre site at 5855 16th Avenue, S.E., just north of Braddock.
Good food, special events, souvenirs and a free keepsake anniversary booklet are planned for the Sept. 6 and 7 celebration. Entertainment features North Dakota’s Official State Troubadour Chuck Suchy who will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday and Strasburg’s Joyful Voices who will present a Lawrence Welk Country Hoedown at 2 p.m. Sunday.
About 1,500 to 2,000 people and dozens and dozens of. . .