CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — As the 61st annual Autumn Leaf Festival approaches on September 20-28, the Clarion Area Chamber of Business and Industry is anticipating record crowds for the 75 events planned around the nine-day festival.The annual Farmers and Crafters Day scheduled for Friday, September 26, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Main Street from Second to Eighth avenues has been closed to additional vendors since May 1.
“We had a waiting list of 40 or 50 names, and we had to shut that off,” said Chamber Executive Director Tracy Becker. “We’ve had people calling us and begging us for space. We have crafters that have been coming here for years, and they cannot believe they can’t get into the show.”
The craft day often attracts more visitors that the annual ALF Parade on Saturday. Becker credits the increase in registration for that event and others to on-line registration. Letters are sent in December to anyone who participates and asked if they want to register for the next year.
“We had people register the first week of January,” said Becker. “It’s amazing where we’re at.”
Challenges are always part of running such a festival, and the Chamber has experienced some of its own, including losing two staff members and hiring replacements. There are 75 events during ALF week, and 16 of them are run through the chamber. However, businesses continue to support the festival with sponsorships such as Farmers National Bank and others.
“People are still calling to ask if they can volunteer,” said Becker. “The committees have been meeting on a regular basis, things are going well, and we have a great theme, An Autumn Safari.”
A complete schedule and additional information is available at www.clarionpa.com.
Antique Tractor Show Continues to Expand
Josyln Dechant, assistant manager of the Clarion office of Northwest Savings Bank, views the hit and miss engine display in the bank lobby as part of the Antique Tractor Show. One of the smallest John Deere’s at one and a half horsepower, these engines powered all of the farm equipment in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The workhorse of farms, they pumped water, shelled corn, separation, and had blowers in addition to other uses. The corn shelling of this John Deere will be demonstrated during the show.
One of the challenges of ALF is developing events that attract every age group, and one event that has grown every year is the Northwest Savings Bank Antique Tractor Show.
“When you look at the Autumn Leaf Festival, you try and do events that kind of hit every age group,” said Becker. “The tractor day is the last day of the festival. We wanted to get something to draw people in on that last day because I know after Saturday night everyone is just exhausted. With the antique tractor show, it was an opportunity, and it’s growing.”
Becker said the event attracted 100 tractors last year, and she expects more this year under the continued leadership of Ray Cupples.
“The thing with the antique tractor show is that even if it is raining, they’ll come out because tractors that are out on the farm are out every season,” continued Becker. “I didn’t realize there were that many different tractors. We give out 30 trophies. People even take a lot of pride in their lawn tractors. It’s something that you don’t see every day.”
The 17-year-old event was originally held between Third and Fourth Avenue, but with Cupples’ involvement, the show has grown by two hundred percent if not more, according to Becker.
“Tractors and collecting is much bigger than most anybody can really understand in the Clarion area,” said Cupples. There’s a group out of Sykesville area PPMA (Past, Present Machine Association) that also supports us very heavily.
Cupples said the Clarion area also has five excellent collectors of tractors and related equipment, the kind featured at major shows throughout the nation.
They include:
• The Barrett Family and Ridgeview Farms in Templeton.
• Dave Kahle at Kahle’s Kitchens “has the most unique collection that there is…he has a lot of Fords and a lot of big and really different stuff.”
• Art Forest has over 40 some, a magnificent big collection.
• Ken Swartfager and his wife in Knox “have a nice collection and go to pulling competitions. They specialize in Cockshutt, a Canadian brand of Oliver. There are not many around our area because it was a Canadian brand, and we sold the Oliver here. It’s a nice collection and some hot rod specialty stuff.”
• “My own collection is nice, and I specialize only in John Deere tractors and everything around them like trailers and wagons. I also specialize in crawlers. I have four John Deere cleat track tractors, little crawlers with the sheet metal shoes.”
This year across from the courthouse, four John Deere crawlers will be set in a row, an M, a 40, a 420 and a 430, and will span from 1947 through to about 1958, every model of crawler made in that period of time.
“I don’t know of anywhere at any major show that those four crawlers will be sitting next to each other,” said Cupples.
He notes that all of the participants are collectors, hobbyists who also have some working tractors. The show will also present a good showing of hit and miss engines.
Cupples said tractors have always been in his blood, and he has a degree in agriculture from Delaware Valley College, but credits his wife for getting him started in collecting.
“My wife bought my first tractor for me, a 1943 John Deere A,” said Cupples. “She surprised me and bought that tractor, and I’ve been adding and adding, and when I retired, I built the second barn, and we’re just full of them.”
