WESTLOCK – The Canadian Tractor Museum in Westlock is gaining recognition as a very special museum far and wide and was recently chosen above others in Canada by an Ontario woman as the new home for a pair of unique tractors.
Audrey Strang of Cobourg, Ont., began the search for a place for two Farmall M High Clearance tractors even before her husband Allan passed away a couple of months ago.
He had been ill for the past three years, and she began putting some feelers out before he passed away, because they knew he couldn’t get better.
“I did not want those two tractors to be separated,” she said. “I thought if I put them up for sale around here, someone might come and buy one and someone else buy the other, and they would be gone, and who knows where. And that’s why I wanted them in a museum to keep them together.”
She said she chose the Canadian Tractor Museum after an online search, knowing it would be the right home.
“I looked at the pictures and such, and thought, that sounds good.”
Her daughter Shelley made several calls back and forth with museum executive director Barb Kostiw and conference calls with the museum’s board of directors. In the end, it was arranged for the donation of the two tractors to the Canadian Tractor Museum.
After the long journey, with delays in Manitoba due to a snowstorm and similar conditions in Calgary, the two tractors arrived safe and sound the in Westlock late in the afternoon of Oct 25. One is a Super M High Clearance that has been modified for work in the sugar-cane fields, while the other, which sits just slightly lower, is also a high clearance tractor, a Super MV (the V for vegetable) and was used for work in vegetable fields. Both are said to be 1953 models.
A Google search indicates just 1,674 of the MV, Super MV and High Clearance models were manufactured from 1942 to 1954, and the original cost in 1952 is listed at $2,400.
These two, fully restored, are likely worth at least 10 times that each.
Although he never farmed, Allan Strang grew up on a farm as a young boy driving tractors. As an adult, he went into the business with his father and operated Strang Cedar Ltd. which was in business for over 50 years.
Audrey says in his business, he had big trucks, but was always interested in tractors and “just loved those old tractors.”
Speaking specifically of the two that now make their home in the museum in Westlock, she says, “He wanted these sugar-cane tractors, and he went way down in the States and bought them. When he brought them home, they were just like pieces of junk, in my opinion.”
Now fully restored, Audrey believe they may have come from Missouri.
He did the restoration of these two and others, but had the painting done by a local fellow, an excellent painter.”
Allan had others that he restored, including a couple of Norsemen tractors, another lesser-known tractor make).
“They were a very oddball tractor too, but he took those to an auction and someone down in the States bought them.”
Audrey said they had a garage full of old tractors, many other Farmalls among them.
“They’re all sold, and a lot of them went to Allan’s friends, which is good.”
Allan’s interests went beyond just restoring old tractors and was involved in tractor pulls with another Farmall that he pulled with, she says, and was the No. 1 tractor on the circuit for years. That, the two high-clearance Ms and another were taken to various shows and always won first.
Having the Canadian Tractor Museum chosen as a home for the donation of two very unique tractors from halfway across Canada certainly says a lot about the museum itself. The museum, located on the west side of Westlock, is home to over 100 tractors, mostly fully restored units, many donated and some currently on loan. There are also displays of various smaller one-cylinder engines and other items in the museum building, plus more in a cold storage building outside. There is also a separate building housing several large stationary one-cylinder engines.
The museum location itself is easily spotted from a distance with the 50-foot weather vane, with a bright orange Case tractor on steel at the very top. As one enters the grounds to the museum, there are a couple of old steam tractors on display — a Rumely and a Sawyer Massey, and currently also an International 35 crawler tractor. There is also an assortment of tractors and equipment on the grounds as well.
