Powerful past, promising future: Winamac Power Weekend

Summer can be a jam-packed, fast-paced, time of year where it feels like you’re running out of time. 

However, in Winamac, life moves a bit slower one weekend out of the year. On Thursday July 17, Northern Indiana Power From the Past, Inc. kicked off its 48th annual antique power show. Weather permitting, it takes place every year at the Pulaski County Fair Grounds in Winamac. The festival opened at 9 a.m., and each day had different activities that are a blast from the past.

Power From the Past creates a sense of nostalgia for everyone who visits. Every year, they pick a different tractor manufacturer to feature. This year there were countless Fords on the grounds.  Each morning began with a flag raising. There were daily demonstrations of an antique saw mill in action, an antique threshing machine, horse-pulled wagons, leather crafting, hit & miss engines, a mini straw baler, and vintage tractors.

The event began almost fifty years ago in 1976 when the original 19 members realized there was no local tractor show, so they decided to start one of their own. In 1978, they officially became a nonprofit club. The event quickly became a success, with upwards of three thousand people in attendance in previous years. Bob Smith and Warren Bickel are the two remaining original founders, and were both in attendance at Thursday’s show. The team has grown significantly since its founding, now having over sixty people on the team. One of these newer members is Secretary Sherry Fagner.

“That’s how it started: some people who had some ideas,” Fagner said.  “There are a couple of collectors who had steam engines and some really cool older tractors at the time. That was nearly 50 years ago. Now, we’re coming up on our 50th year of shows in two years, and 50 years ago, what was old then is now twice as old, but the things that were brand new then are now collectors. It’s kind of full circle.”

Fagner was born and raised in Winamac and can remember coming to the show with her parents growing up. Now she has been a member of Power from the Past for seven years. She pointed out many antiques that have stood the test of time. She was able to paint a picture and tell a story for many of the pieces.

“Keeping the future of the past out there is so important,” Fagner said. “How many people knew Ford had a snowblower back in the day? Or did you know about the Maytag ‘Hit & Miss’ engines making ice cream? ” she asked.  

While the vintage machinery is a major draw to get people to come out, at the heart of the event is a sense of community. Strolling through the grounds, there was a strong sense of pride, and of people not only knowing, but really caring, about their neighbors.

“There’s truly a sense of community. Everyone comes to see each other,” Fagner said. “The tractors are the mechanism that gets everyone together, what brings us here, but it is about the people. There’s been a lot of need for that in our community to pull things back together. That’s why we do it. That and the next generation. We don’t want the little ones and our younger generation to lose what once was because we live on our phones. We live in a technology era, but the world needs this.”

Fagner emphasized how important this weekend is for the next generation. Each year, the Power From the Past awards scholarships to students who are pursuing higher education in agriculture.

“We’ve got a whole group of young adults in their 30s and 40s, who grew up in the club with their parents, who are now directors and advisors. They do all the things that their parents did because their parents already put in their time. Now it’s their turn. Soon enough, they’ll be having kids of their own. We also opted to officially start having Junior advisors this year because that is something that we feel strongly about. That is the next generation. For a young kid to see their name in the program and to be recognized for pitching in, helping out: that’s huge,” Fagner said.

In addition to the different demonstrations, there is also a large flea market spanning four different buildings with additional vendors outside, a locally made quilt show, town wide yard sale, many different food vendors, and Fagner’s personal favorite, the horse pull.   Each day also featured entertainment, from line dancing to local musicians.

The past year has been cancelled due to severe flooding. Fagner said the long wait has made people especially look forward to this year.

“We’re looking forward to a more robust year because the people missed this. I think everybody’s looking forward to a good, solid year, and we’re already planning for our 50th year. Our feature this year is Ford, but in two years we’re doing ‘the featureless 50th.’ When we started, there was not a feature, people just brought their tractors. We’re going to bring back some of the things from the past. We are the power of the past, and we’re bringing things back to what they did then. There used to be a watermelon seed spinning contest. We haven’t had that for years.  Bringing stuff like that back will be all kinds of fun,” Fagner said.

To learn more about Power From the Past, visit them at winamacpowershow.com.