Pioneer ways of harvesting were demonstrated at the annual two-day threshing bee held at the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum.
A large crowd gathered on the Saturday with a good attendance on Sunday to witness vehicle parades, field demonstrations, blacksmithing, rope making, vintage tractor pulls and to tour the 40 village buildings.
Two of the first time visitors came from Kipling in southeast Saskatchewan. Pam and Grant White learned about the threshing bee when a visitor brought them a copy of the museum’s 50th anniversary souvenir edition.
“I’m not that old but I remember this old machinery,’’ he said.
Paul Gessell of Montreal, who started his journalism career at the Moose Jaw Times-Herald over 50 years ago was amazed at the village.
“I’d heard about the ship,” he said. “I've always wanted to see it.”
Now that he’s seen the hull he thinks the project by Tom Sukanen “was a mad folly.”
Two visitors from Ontario, one from Windsor, one from a rural setting, brought tractors and took part in the parades and vintage tractor pulls.
One visitor described the old tractors as “neat” and added “What a collection!”
The people movers and the barrel train were popular rides.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected].
