“The Threshers are coming!” is an aptly named collection of poems by North Dakotan Clarence Larson. It shares memories of harvesting crops with steam threshing machines.
In 1913, a threshing outfit, he writes, included 17 men, bundle stiffs and spikes, six grain wagons with men to shovel, and one big cook car with a hired-man cook.
As technology improved, harvesting became easier and less time-consuming. And as memories of steam-threshing outfits faded into stories, North Dakotans developed a renewed interest in old threshing machines. This sparked a desire to remember, learn from, and celebrate the past through community threshing bees.
On this date in 1976, the Steele County Press reported an interesting story about a group of friends who got together to harvest a few acres of oats the old-fashioned way just for fun.
Gordon Carlson had purchased and fixed up an old threshing machine. He said, “We just do it for fun, just to get together and talk and have a good time.”
All agreed the process was time-consuming and required much more manual labor than modern combining. The men loaded bundles of oats into hay wagons and pitched them into the machine, all by hand.
Threshing bees like the Makoti Threshing Show, offer community members a chance to experience old-fashioned threshing, even if they don’t own a machine.
These events have grown to include antique cars and trucks, pancake breakfasts, and homemade lunches and dinners for visitors. In addition to the food and fun, people can learn about old gas and steam threshing machines, and the farming techniques of the past.
In 1976, the Makoti Show had over 100 units operating during the weekend.
“The threshers are coming!” can still be heard at threshing bees across the state, while visitors remember Clarence Larson and the many North Dakotans who worked hard to thresh and harvest throughout the state’s history.
Dakota Datebook by Ashley Thronson
Sources:
- “A glimpse at the past.” Steele County Press, September 29, 1976.
- Mountrail County Record, September 29, 1976.
- Larsen, Clarence A. Memories of steam threshing days and other poems. 1975
- Annual show. Makoti Threshers, Inc.1972.
