By ROBERT RIGGS
Kentucky Correspondent

LANESVILLE, Ind. — Lanesville merchant Jim Rakes had a busy day at the store on Sept. 12. His Creekside Furniture on Main Street is on the Heritage Weekend parade route right at the entrance to Heritage Park, the site for the little town’s big historic weekend.
He said an estimated 100,000 people attended the three-day festival. During the parade many people from the crowd drifted into his store. Some came to look around at merchandise, some came to just say hello and others came mostly to get out of the sun. He said the free bags of popcorn he gave away brought smiles to many faces, especially the children’s.

Rakes especially enjoyed this year’s Heritage parade because International Harvester tractors and farm equipment were featured at the show. Years ago, Rakes worked at the IH foundry in Louisville, Ky., where he made grills, motor blocks, wheel rims and transmission casings, for tractors such as those passing by. Grand Marshal for the 2009 parade was former NASCAR driver “Chargin” Charley Glotzbach, who was born in Elizabeth, Ind.

Clyde Pitts of Corydon, Ind., was one of the directors of the antique tractor display and parade events. Pitts, a heavy equipment operator for the state, was excited about this year’s record crowds, and record number of IH tractors on display – there were more than 200 present.

The previous high number was when John Deere equipment was featured and there were about 150 pieces of machinery.
Pitts restores vintage tractors as a hobby and owns 41. He brought three of his Harvester tractors to the event. One of them was a 1947 Model I-4 that had originally come rigged from the factory as a street sweeper.

Another exhibitor, Don Mathes, also of nearby Corydon, said he had been an exhibitor at the original Heritage Weekend which was during America’s bicentennial celebration in 1976. Mathes remembered little more than five old tractors and seven antique hit-and-miss engines for the parade at that first event. There had also been food and a raffle held by the ladies of the community for a patriotic quilt. The festival, Mathes said, really took off after that first one and just kept on growing.

Among the equipment the Mathes family demonstrated this year was a rare 1910 Alamo gas engine manufactured somewhere in Michigan. He also operated a 1907 3-hp Fairbanks upright model hit-and-miss engine and an 1895 Fairbanks water pump throughout the weekend.

A special event at this year’s Heritage festival was the re-signing of the town-owned Mail Pouch Tobacco barn by the son of Harley Warrick, the now-deceased original painter. A Mail Pouch barn is a barn that was painted on its side between 1890 and 1992 with an advertisement for Mail Pouch chewing tobacco.

Roger Warrick ceremoniously painted Harley’s name on the landmark barn, that had recently been renovated with county funds.
The weekend included tractor pulls, antique tractor pulls and toy tractor pulls for the children. There were also rustic demonstrations of apple butter making, broom and basket making, blacksmithing, pottery, quilting, sorghum and soap making, draft horses and more.

Published on Oct. 7, 2009