Tractor Show Returns

To Redding On June 9

REDDING — Nearly 100 exhibitors of tractors and farm implements depicting an era gone by will be on hand at Lonetown Farm for the Second Annual Antique Tractor Show sponsored by Redding Historical Society on Saturday, June 9, from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is $5.

Refreshments will be catered by the Georgetown Saloon, and the band Catfish is scheduled to perform.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Historical Society. In addition to the exhibiting machinery, there will also be a tractor pull and horse-drawn wagon rides.

Redding, with its 20,000 acres of woodlands and pasture, was a rural farming community until fairly recently. Many settlers moved north from lower Fairfield County at the turn of the 18th Century looking for new fields to plow. It is this slice of town history the organizers of the antique tractor show hope to bring to life at Lonetown Farm.

Last year’s event, The Agricultural Machinery of Yesteryear Show, was the first of its kind in Redding. Most of the equipment on display exemplified what farmers in Redding used prior to 1960. Exhibitors include local collectors as well as enthusiasts from Bethel, Ridgefield, Weston, Wilton, and Litchfield.

The show is being organized by Charley Couch, president of the historical society, along with Pat Kinney, Matt Meehan, and Schuyler Warner, all of Redding.

“In becoming a tractor buff, which for me started as a hobby, my appreciation and respect for the art of farming has grown considerably,” said Mr Kinney. “To understand that Redding’s past lies in the power of these machines and the people who operated them is to understand what it must have been like here when farming was the way of life.”

For more information, or to participate in the 2nd Annual Agricultural Machinery of Yesteryear Event, contact Pat Kinney at 203-544-8988 during the day or Matt Meehan, 203-938-4131, evenings. Lonetown Farm is at 24 Lonetown Road, Redding.