This is a steam-powered tractor, which I photographed last August at my hometown’s annual festival, Threshing Days. It is a massive thing, full of detail, noise, and action.

Threshing Days (see earlier articles about it) brings people in from across the country. The town’s usual population of 600 multiplies for this.

The engine pictured here was being used for a threshing demonstration, which was how wheat was processed before combines were invented. A big flywheel on the engine was connected to a large belt, which powered the threshing machine. That machine separated the wheat like a modern combine does, but was supplied by farmers dumping wheat onto it.