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Each booth educates the public and demonstrates how a product was harvested, whether for sugar beets, wheat, corn or barley or any other product.

Montana isn’t known for the big city lights like New York City and the famous Las Vegas.  However, it does have it’s share of history, events and Old West specialties!  Put that in modern times and it becomes an active, interesting and thrilling event to see.  The annual Threshing Bee is centered around old machinery, history, and education wrapped in one.

Have you ever envisioned the Old West and the effort it took in order to harvest crops, cut hay, or even haul product to a destination?  This event will make any farmer, rancher and/or visitor appreciate technology and how it has advanced over the decades. 

The antique tractors that have been restored go on an old tractor drive.

The old tractors are restored to the point that anyone can see that they have been taken care of.  Some of tractors and antique machinery are as old as the 1900′s or maybe earlier.  According to the membership of the Antique Tractor Club, there are members from out of state as well as members from even out of the country.  What a site to see sponsored by the South Central Montana Antique Tractor & Machinery Association (SCATMA) also known as the Anitque Tractor Club. 

The following statement is a reason why any person needs to check out this event as I and the family did. 

   Our main event each year is the Annual Threshing Bee.  It is held the third weekend in August at the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture approximately 15 miles NE of Billings Montana.  This is the time of the year when the club members bring out their latest restoration of a tractor, stationary engine, or demonstrate their expertise in blacksmithing, binding grain, threshing, sawmill operation.  Antique tractors and steam engines power the sawmill, thresh the grain, and plow as it was done in the early days.  For entertainment there is an antique tractor pull.  Our show is different than most in that we encourage members to demonstrate their equipment, not just show it as a static display.

demonstraction of a hay bail how it was done in the old days. Now a days, round bails of hay are more common.

The entertainment and activity of the event is what brings locals, residents and out of state visitors to the event.  We even saw the whole process of how wheat was harvested in the old days, thrashed, ground and then used to make bread.  All in one day even though the Threshing Bee was a two day event.  The tractor pull was also a hit. 

The Antique Tractor Club and Huntley Project Museum are two entities that help bring the Old West alive. If you go to the Museum, you’ll find video archives of the old west, old tractors what it took to develop the Huntley Project area.  This was all done back in the days of the settlers and homesteaders. 

 Adding to the Old West events and activities outside of Billings, MT, is another authentic western adventure from covered wagon rides, trail rides, and old cowboys singing around the campfire that will give you an experience never to forget.  The Pappy’s Cowboy Cookout adventure also provides a piece of the West.   One can get lost deep in history with what Western Romance Company, the Antique Tractor Club and the Huntley Project Museum offers for the Old West.