A parade of tractors rolled through Dyersville this weekend as part of the annual Farm Toy celebration.
Jerry Klostermann of Bankston was driving his Case IH 5250, a working tractor that’s nearly nine feet tall. “It’s about a 110 horsepower tractor…We use it on the mixer mill at home all the time,” Klostermann said. “We just take a power washer and wash it off for taking it on the tractor ride and tomorrow it’ll be back grinding feed again.”
Eighty-year-old Henry Joosten of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been coming to Dyersville for the past 22 years to participate in the event, which includes a tractor ride through the countryside. “It’s the only way to see Iowa,” Joosten said. “It’s the only real way to see what God gave us to take care of. You can go on a car, on a motorcycle, but there’s nothing like seeing it on a tractor.”
The National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville hosts the annual event, which started in 1987. The two-story museum features over 30,000 toys, scale models and replicas of farm equipment.
(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)