Pasture Party Highlights Agriculture’s Past to Secure Its Future

The Somerset Steam and Gas Engine Association (SSGEA) held its 47th annual Pasture Party from Sept. 8 – 10, continuing a decades-long tradition of passing on knowledge about the antique technologies that made industrial-era agriculture possible.

Throughout the weekend, visitors from near and far enjoyed homemade food, live bluegrass music, a flea market and a parade. Situated on a working farm in Somerset, the event is unique from other steam and gas shows in that attendees are able to see many of the machines in action. This year’s live demonstrations included wheat threshing, corn milling and chopping, tractor plowing, blacksmithing and a sawmill.

For SSGEA President Gil Roberts, the party is a family-friendly way to introduce new generations to agricultural history. In fact, that’s how Roberts’ own passion for steam and gas engines started, by going to shows with his late father Bill Roberts, who founded the association in 1976.

“As my father got older, I wanted to spend more time with him and we have a steam engine he was able to haul,” he reflected. “So, we started going to Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, other shows in the United States and got to meet people all over doing that.”

Roberts shared that friends from across the country also make the trip out to Somerset each year, and that part of the appeal of being in the world of steam and gas engines is the tight-knit relationships that are built along the way.

“This is really a community,” he said. “I've got probably 20 friends of mine that drove from Michigan and North Carolina and Delaware, Pennsylvania. It's amazing the friendship that you build in this organization.”

Passing on the tradition to family and friends also helps ensure that knowledge about these historically vital machines — and the skills to keep them working ­— won’t be lost over time.

“I just finished a parade and it's amazing to me that the generations are involved like myself and my father,” Roberts said. “All this stuff has to be rebuilt, revamped and restored, and when the young generation gets involved, it teaches them the mechanical ability of building or saving something, and that's huge.”

And while the pasture party is a plain old good time, it also serves as a way for the association to give back to the community. At the shingle mill, board member and longtime pasture party attendee Andy Hutchison was branding the name of the association onto a stack of cedar planks. Those shingles are then sold to raise scholarship funds for Orange County High School graduates, and additional fundraising by the association goes toward everything from local fire and rescue squads to toys for families in need.

As the years progress, Hutchison says it will take a new generation of members and volunteers stepping up to keep the party going.

“It's important to maintain the history,” Hutchison shared. “It's important for families that maybe don't have an agricultural or farm background to be able to come out here and see how their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents used to do things because in today's world, there are limited opportunities to showcase this type of equipment. And we certainly need volunteers to keep this show going in the future.”

 To learn more about the Somerset Steam and Gas Association, visit www.somersetsteamandgas.org.

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