Playing hooky at the Red Power Roundup

A couple of weeks ago, I grabbed our video intern Karson, and we took a road trip to Red Power Roundup (RPRU) in Spencer, Iowa. I’ve always wanted to go to one, but the schedules never worked out until this year. I’d promised Karson that we’d get out of the office more this summer than we did last summer, so off we went.

The plan was to get a few people to tell tractor stories on camera, and record enough general footage for a cool teaser video. I figured I could sweet-talk a few people into jumping on camera with me. However, I didn’t really have anybody in mind because I wasn’t sure who was going to be there.

As it turned out, there was plenty to see and lots of people to meet.

But wait, there’s lots more! We’ll get there in a minute. First, let’s talk about what Red Power Roundup is, and why it’s important.

Red Power Roundup: celebrating all things IH

Now in its 35th year, Red Power Roundup is the annual show of the IH Collectors Club (IHCC). The IHCC is an organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating all things International Harvester. They’ve got over 7,000 members and 46 chapters, including ones in Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden. Every year, a chapter is chosen to host RPRU, and this year was Iowa’s turn.

I’ve been involved with promoting and hosting some big events, and I know that it’s a ton of work. It takes dedication, organization, thick skin, and an army of volunteers to make stuff like this happen. The town of Spencer was a perfect place to hold RPRU. The Clay County Fairgrounds is a very nice facility, and the town has almost all the amenities that you’d ever want or need for a show like this.

In my opinion, the Iowa chapter did an utterly phenomenal job in putting it together, and an even better job in handling Mother Nature’s curveballs. When torrential rains hit Spencer during the show and the Little Sioux swelled out of her banks, they shifted into crisis mode and did what they had to do.

RPRU: eye candy for miles

There was pretty paint everywhere you looked. There were literally hundreds of nicely restored and/or customized red tractors on the grounds.

Customs and re-powers

There were lots of neat tractors on display, but Don Scholting’s highly-customized 1950 Farmall M really caught my attention. It’s powered by a very rare 702-cubic-inch GMC V-12 that was originally produced in the 1960s for Cold War-era missile carriers. I’m told that he fired it up a few times during the show, but sadly, I missed my chance to hear it run.

While we’re talking different paint jobs, the Weber family had their pair of pulling tractors on display as well. They’re painted to match the white “5 Millionth” tractor, a 1066 that rolled off the assembly line on Feb. 1, 1974.

Historic tractors

There were some historic tractors on display at the show. Ryan Peters loaded the 100,000th Farmall up and brought it up for the show — until then, I’d only seen photos of this tractor.

It wasn’t all pretty paint, though. This little 460 in its work clothes just happens to be the very first one ever built.

The interviews

As it turned out, it wasn’t nearly as hard to get people on camera as I thought it would be. We ended up recording four different interviews and uncovered a few very neat stories. Rather than describe them, though, watch video below and see for yourself!

Spoiler alert: For you Farmall-Land fans and old friends of Jerry Mez’s, there’s a special one in this video about a 1456 with a bit of a secret under the hood.

Honestly, we could’ve stayed there late into the day and captured more stories on camera, but we had to get back home. It’ll give us a good excuse to go to RPRU in 2025 or 2026 to catch a few more.

Why shows like RPRU are important

Shows like Red Power Roundup are about a lot more than just a bunch of old tractors. Tractor shows are important to our agricultural heritage. This is where we celebrate and remember the history of the American farmer. It’s more than old farmers carrying on with old stories — this is where memories and friendships are made, where passion for agriculture is shared, and hopefully passed down to another generation. I lost count of how many multi-generation families I saw at RPRU, with the kiddos tugging their parents and grandparents around the hundreds of tractors on display.

As far as the history goes, let me put it in perspective. Lee Klancher, author of the award-winning “Red Tractors” and “Farmall Century” books, teamed up with Max Armstrong to give a guest lecture about what it was like during the last days of International Harvester. Karson and I were planning to go to it, but the room was so full that we couldn’t even get in — and we got there early! (Though, I’m fairly sure that Steiner has recorded these lectures, and hopefully they’ll be available to watch soon.)

A lot of the history of the companies that pioneered the mechanization of farm equipment was never captured. Nobody had a camera in their pocket like we do now, so the only way anybody could capture it was by writing it down — and that didn’t happen very often. Today, however, we have the technology to document it. We’re living in a very unique era where the people who played important roles in building the groundbreaking equipment in the 1970s and 1980s are still alive and remember it clearly enough to talk about it.

Wrapping up

Karson and I really enjoyed our time at RPRU this year, and I hope we can get to Sedalia, Missouri, next year for the 36th annual show. Between the people, the tractors, the vendors, history, and the atmosphere at the show, it made for a terrific day!

One more thing:

I took this photo at the show this year, and since putting it up on Tractor Zoom’s social media, it’s gone somewhat viral, which is exactly what I wanted. It’s been shared thousands of times. Heck, even Machinery Pete borrowed the photo and posted it on his timeline. Don’t pay attention to the year — that’s a typo. Farmall ended Super M production in 1954 if I remember right.

If you have a Super M with serial number 12885, please reach out to Scott. He’s desperate to get that tractor back home to the family farm.

That about wraps it up for this week’s Interesting Iron! Make it a great week!

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