Darfur was platted in April 1899 by the Chicago and North Western Railway; its incorporation as a village was completed on December 31, 1903 and it became a city on January 1, 1974 when Minnesota abolished villages.

Darfur School,Darfur MN

School District Nbr 40 1906 is written above the door.

Afternoon autumn sun filters through the trees to warm the house.

 This barn near Butterfield, MN is one of my favorites.  It’s a wonderful structure and has an ACO Silo beside it.   It greets visitors as they approach the North edge of the town.    It’s very close to the Butterfield Threshing Bee site.  

Last weekend was the 47th annual threshing bee in Butterfield MN. This is one of the bigger shows I’ve been to. The show takes place in Voss Park right in Butterfield. It’s a very nice park with many trees and a lake nearby. It has a Pioneer town in the park with many old buildings and shops. There is live entertainment in the form of Bluegrass, Gospel and Country music through out the weekend. There is a parade daily. Many folks come for the whole weekend and camp right in the park.

The featured brand of tractor for this show was Cockshutt which was a Canadian tractor. Much more history of Cockshutt available here. The park was chocked full of steam engines of all sizes. As I said, this show is pretty big and there are demonstrations of all manner going on all day. Sawmills being powered by steam engines, threshing with steam engines, broom making, blacksmith shop with smiths working steel, candle making, print shop and so on.

It’s really a wonderful show put on in a wonderful small town in Southwestern MN.

On to the photos.

Cockshutt Tracotrs greet you at the entrance

Threshing

Threshing

Saw Mill

Grist mill where grain is ground

Belle City threshing machine

Looking down the road in the park with a lot of steam engine smoke

Tractor used for threshing and a straw stack

Buckeye Oil Engine with a sense of scale.  It’s BIG

Buckeye Oil Engine

Blacksmith making a horseshoe

A small saw mill

Tractors galore

Gone fishin’

Summertime Farmscape – Watonwan County MN near La Salle

August sun in Minnesota shines brightly on this beautiful summer day.  The white fence and the horses really add to the scene.  The barn is in excellent condition and the horses show it’s an active farm as opposed to one that is a leftover from a somewhat forgotten time.

Barn and A.C.O. Silo near St. James, MN

This one is from October of 2011.  It was a nice fall day with a temp in the low 60’s.  Some showers had just passed and a mix of good clouds and sun prevailed.  This type of light and sky is one of may favorite conditions for landscape photography.

If it was a bit later in the day the light would have been even better, but you have to take advantage of what you get.  I shot several nice photos that day in the St. James and Butterfield areas of MN.