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This week’s What’s New Wednesday features The Minneapolis kerosene tractor. This steel monster of a tractor weighs in at over 11 tons. (By comparison, the average, modern tractor weighs between 2-3 tons.) Records indicate Otto Korth, from near Watertown, SD purchased it new in late 1919. He is seen operating the Minneapolis tractor in the photo. His son, Orrin, donated this and other unique artifacts. Otto Korth traded his Minneapolis 40-80 for the newer model, the 35-70. He used this heavy tractor for threshing, plowing and road building. 

 The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company developed in Hopkins, Minnesota. As an off shoot of the Fond du Lac Threshing Machine Company, it started building threshing machines, but then began working with steam traction engines. To remain competitive by 1911, it began to look into gas engines. The 35-70, like the one above, and its predecessor, 40-80, tractors are similar, but with a few differences in the engine. The Minneapolis engine starts with gasoline but runs on kerosene, a cheaper fuel. The 35-70 lasted from 1920-1929. In 1929, three companies merged: the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, the Moline Implement Company and the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company. They formed the new Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company. Before it was Minneapolis-Moline (MM) it was just The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company. 

SDAHM 2006:055:001  Donated by Orrin Korth