August 26, 2021 at 5:22 p.m.
Steam-powered
Fortkamp uses tractor fueled by wood (or cal) to help run sawmill during annual Tri-State show
Steam-powered
The word “gas” is right there in the association’s name.
But there’s more than one way to power a tractor
For the 1916 Case 40 horsepower steam engine tractor Greg Fortkamp has on display and uses to help power the sawmill at the Tri-State Antique Engine and Tractor Show at Jay County Fairgrounds, it’s wood or coal that do the job.
Fortkamp, a rural Fort Recovery resident, added the 105-year-old Case to his collection about five or six years ago.
It wasn’t one he had been looking for.
Instead, Fortkamp was on the hunt for a cross-motor Case — a tractor that has the motor perpendicular to the body instead of in line.
But as he was looking on Craigslist, the 1916 model popped up.
“I was like, ‘Huh, that would be neat,’” said Fortkamp. “I went and looked at it, drove home, and a couple months later went (to Oklahoma) and bought it.
“It’s old and unique. Everything is mechanical and exposed. It just looks cool running.”
Friends got Fortkamp started with tractor collecting.
Chief among them were the Kaffenbergers — he also named the Wuebker, Bergman and Stammen families — who had older tractors he thought were also neat. They’d go out plowing a couple of times a summer.
About 2004, Fortkamp wanted one of his own.
“I bought a couple and didn’t stop,” he said.
The collection now features about 10 gas-powered tractors ranging from 1936 to 1953. He also has plows, a thresher and other odds and ends.
The 1916 steam-powered tractor is his favorite, but it also takes the most effort.
It was in close to working condition when he bought it, with the exception of a few minor details. And he redid the bunkers — they hold the coal and wood — and the water tanks.
Still, even in peak condition, getting it moving is a process.
“This is a lot more work,” said Fortkamp, a 1998 Fort Recovery High School graduate who now owns and operates Fortkamp Foam in addition to keeping hogs and chickens.
But there’s more than one way to power a tractor
For the 1916 Case 40 horsepower steam engine tractor Greg Fortkamp has on display and uses to help power the sawmill at the Tri-State Antique Engine and Tractor Show at Jay County Fairgrounds, it’s wood or coal that do the job.
Fortkamp, a rural Fort Recovery resident, added the 105-year-old Case to his collection about five or six years ago.
It wasn’t one he had been looking for.
Instead, Fortkamp was on the hunt for a cross-motor Case — a tractor that has the motor perpendicular to the body instead of in line.
But as he was looking on Craigslist, the 1916 model popped up.
“I was like, ‘Huh, that would be neat,’” said Fortkamp. “I went and looked at it, drove home, and a couple months later went (to Oklahoma) and bought it.
“It’s old and unique. Everything is mechanical and exposed. It just looks cool running.”
Friends got Fortkamp started with tractor collecting.
Chief among them were the Kaffenbergers — he also named the Wuebker, Bergman and Stammen families — who had older tractors he thought were also neat. They’d go out plowing a couple of times a summer.
About 2004, Fortkamp wanted one of his own.
“I bought a couple and didn’t stop,” he said.
The collection now features about 10 gas-powered tractors ranging from 1936 to 1953. He also has plows, a thresher and other odds and ends.
The 1916 steam-powered tractor is his favorite, but it also takes the most effort.
It was in close to working condition when he bought it, with the exception of a few minor details. And he redid the bunkers — they hold the coal and wood — and the water tanks.
Still, even in peak condition, getting it moving is a process.
“This is a lot more work,” said Fortkamp, a 1998 Fort Recovery High School graduate who now owns and operates Fortkamp Foam in addition to keeping hogs and chickens.
“Something that’s gas, you turn the fuel on and as long as you have a good battery it fires up and you go. This takes two hours to get ready to run.”
To use the tractor at the sawmill, a regular attraction at the Tri-State show that continues at the fairgrounds through Saturday, for the 10:30 a.m. show he arrives between 7 and 8 a.m. each day. He fills the bunkers with wood and lights a fire. In about an hour, the wood burns down. Then it’s time for more.
“By the second load of wood, you start building steam and by then you can start moving it,” he said.
The 1916 Case has some company in its spot on the Tri-State property east of the fairgrounds. Sitting to its south is a quarter-scale replica that Fortkamp picked up about three years ago.
“It was at an auction,” said Fortkamp. “I thought it looked cute, so I bought it.”
He’s not sure exactly when the replica was made, but said there were a lot of scale models built from the 1950s to the 1970s. That was a time of nostalgia for the older tractors like the 1916 model, which became rare as many were sacrificed for scrap as part of the World War II effort.
Fortkamp has been attending the Tri-State show for nearly two decades as a visitor and started displaying in the late aughts. With the 1916, he’s now a regular at the sawmill.
And he’s still hoping to purchase the elusive tractor that led him to the steam-powered model in the first place.
“You always want to add to the collection,” he said. “But you do what the pocketbook can do.
“I’d still like to get a cross-motor Case. I still haven’t got one of those.”
To use the tractor at the sawmill, a regular attraction at the Tri-State show that continues at the fairgrounds through Saturday, for the 10:30 a.m. show he arrives between 7 and 8 a.m. each day. He fills the bunkers with wood and lights a fire. In about an hour, the wood burns down. Then it’s time for more.
“By the second load of wood, you start building steam and by then you can start moving it,” he said.
The 1916 Case has some company in its spot on the Tri-State property east of the fairgrounds. Sitting to its south is a quarter-scale replica that Fortkamp picked up about three years ago.
“It was at an auction,” said Fortkamp. “I thought it looked cute, so I bought it.”
He’s not sure exactly when the replica was made, but said there were a lot of scale models built from the 1950s to the 1970s. That was a time of nostalgia for the older tractors like the 1916 model, which became rare as many were sacrificed for scrap as part of the World War II effort.
Fortkamp has been attending the Tri-State show for nearly two decades as a visitor and started displaying in the late aughts. With the 1916, he’s now a regular at the sawmill.
And he’s still hoping to purchase the elusive tractor that led him to the steam-powered model in the first place.
“You always want to add to the collection,” he said. “But you do what the pocketbook can do.
“I’d still like to get a cross-motor Case. I still haven’t got one of those.”
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