Museum features ‘new’ tractor videos

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

There’s new tech to show off old tractors at the Floyd County Museum.

New to the museum, visitors can enjoy viewing recreations of Oliver advertising videos.

The museum brought in a summer intern with video editing experience, Paige Guthrie, to use the museum’s collection of 16 mm film to make recreations of the kind of promotional videos that would have been used to showcase the tractors at trade shows.

“It’s pretty much all advertising films they would have made,” said Museum Director Mckenna Lloyd.

The museum has digitized 85 different films ranging from the 1950s to 1970s, using the footage to create several 3- to 4-minute videos that will run on the museum’s movable video screen.

“We’ll switch them out every couple months,” said Lloyd. “It’s not just going to be the same thing all the time.”

The video screen was funded by Joan Morgan and the Iowa Cornbelt chapter of the Hart-Parr Oliver Collectors Association.

For those that want to have the original video for themselves, several DVDs have been made collecting the promotional videos.

“We have 15 different DVDs people can buy,” said Lloyd.

Also at the museum, on loan from the Swartzrock family, is a rare 1938 Minneapolis-Moline UDLX tractor.

“This one we have is a unique one,” said Lloyd. “It’s my favorite tractor of all time.”

Built as a “comfortractor,” the UDLX was marketed as a hybrid tractor and automobile that could be used to work in the field and driven into town.

The high cost of the tractor made it a commercial failure, but today it’s a coveted collectable that can be appreciated at the museum for a limited time.

Also coming up at the museum, Lloyd is getting ready for Night at the Museum on Friday, Oct. 11, where kids can come in costume to hear stories from “ghosts” of Floyd County’s past.

The spookiness continues on Oct. 19 when Scott Galliart will host a special Chautauqua Talk about some of Floyd County’s most memorable deaths.