Antique Machinery Draws Interest at Fair

Eastern Upper Peninsula Antique Equipment Association members toss hay into a 1938 International Harvester baling machine that forms and ties bales into their rectangular shape. The group, including (not in order of appearance) Dave, Bob, and Ted Folkersma, Randy Vandermate, and Ryan Berkompas, all of the Rudyard area, performed the demonstration Sunday, September 2, at the Chippewa County Fair in Kinross. The EUP Antique Equipment Association rescued the machine from the woods on the Melvin Schwiderson family property in Brimley. The Schwidersons donated the machine, which was in two pieces and had trees growing out of it, members said. Members recovered the machine's original axle from a trailer in a salvage yard. Now the machine is in working order and was one of the major attractions in the antique machinery section of the Chippewa County Fair.