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| One of the many antique engines on display at the Raitt Homestead Museum, which hosts its 17th annual Antique Tractor & Engine Show, July 27-29. (courtesy photo) |
ELIOT – This weekend (July 27-29), the 17th Annual Eliot
Antique Tractor & Engine Show will be held at the Raitt Homestead Farm
Museum at 2077 State Rd, RT 103, in Eliot. This is a fun-filled weekend for the
entire family. This year they are featuring Oliver Tractors & Gilson
engines.
“It’s a labor of love,” said Lisa Raitt when describing the
weekend. “It’s an all-volunteer board. No one gets a dime.”
Visitors can enjoy antique tractor and engine displays,
working demonstrations including a shingle mill, a 1920’s Hildreth wood
splitter, pumps and engine displays. Ladies are invited to try their hand
at the Ladies’ Skillet Toss. There will be tractor parades, kids pedal tractor
pulls, garden tractor pulling, antique stone boat pulling, and transfer sled
pulling all during the weekend. Folks can visit the Colonial Encampment and
take a spin on the barrel tractor ride. On Friday night, there will be a
benefit auction, and throughout the weekend there are raffles, entertainment,
great food, homemade desserts and an artisans’ alley.
The show is sponsored by the Raitt Homestead Museum, a
non-profit formed in 1996.
Raitt said it takes months of preparation for such a large
show.
“There have been thirty to forty people on site for a few
weeks now, some camping. We have to hay the fields. Now that we have the car
show in June, we hay them early. But now we have to mow the eighteen acres
every five days until the tractors show,” she said. “We have to haul out all
the antiques. And we have hundreds of exhibitors. There’ll be quite a few
people here this weekend.”
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the event goes
directly to the preservation, restoration, and maintenance of the thirty-three
acre Farm Museum buildings, property and equipment, which enables them to
continue to educate future generations and the community at large about farming
history. The Museum also offers on and off-site children’s programs.
The show costs $6 per person; children 6 and under get in
free. For more information, visit www.raittfarmmuseum.org,
email info@raittfarmmuseum.org
or call 207-748-0860 for the schedule. Open Friday from 10 a.m. to 9
p.m., Saturday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
