Napoleon, North Dakota.
About 30 miles (48 km) south of Dawson, North Dakota near the small town of Napoleon, John “Custer” Grenz put together a collection of threshing machines. An avid collector, over the years, he amassed many of these machines that, in their day, were used to separate small grain and seed crops from the straw and chaff. Early machines were powered by horses or steam engines.
This collection winds its way up a small hill on what once was the homestead farm that Mr. Grenz and his wife operated until his retirement. He passed away in 2000, but his legacy lives on. We visited on a cool fall morning when the prairie grasses were a dormant brown. The first photos I’ve seen on the Internet were taken in the summer when the grasses were green. It will be worth the side trip some nice summer day to visit and gather more images. In a future Travel Tuesday post, I will feature more images from this unusual attraction.
About the photo: This image was captured with my Samsung S20U and processed in Lightroom and Luminar AI. As with all of my cellpic images, if your browser supports the function, you can click on the image to get a larger view.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
Amazing collection!
One needs lots of space to create such a collection!
and a true dedication to something that must become quite overwhelming in an ordinary human life.
Wow. This is amazing. You need a lot of space to collect threshers.
Woah! I just basically said that to someone else in another comment thread. I must be clairvoyant! >grin<
That is a great collection of those old machines from long ago. Nice Post.
I am going back when it’s warmer and then I plan to walk along the row of machines to get a closer look at them… just for fun.
Love old machinery, and this is quite a collection. I do look forward to your return and seeing these beauties close up. There is a man down the road from me who collects old John Deere tractors. Dresses them up on Christmas in Santa hats. Always a delight to see a new acquisition appear.
I am envious of those who have the space and the wherewithall to acquire collections of such large “collectables”, (if you can call something as large as a thresher as a collectable. 🙂 )
I’m laughing as I can well imagine the response of the Home Owners Associations, so popular here in Arizona, should anyone present the request to ‘collect’ threshing machines.
All my best to you, John.
Truth! >grin<