TISDALE 鈥� 聽Last week [in August 1988] Park Minhinnick paid a visit to the Recorder offices. The thing that made the visit unique was Minhinnick鈥檚 mode of transportation. He arrived driving a 1927-'28 Hart Parr tractor.
The old steel wheeled farm work-horse was back in ruining order after having sat unattended for the better part of fourty years. Minhinnick told The Recorder the tractor belonged to Fred Abbott of the Sylvania district before he got it and previous to that it was owned by C. Edwards, Harry Thompson, Cleo McCarthy, and Arnold Wyatt who brought the tractor to the area in the early 1930s.
Asked how he came to acquire the tractor, Minhinnick said, 鈥淚 saw it sitting in a field one day and thought it would be good to restore.鈥�
It was quite a job to get the old timer up and running again.
鈥淚 spent over 125 hours restoring the machine,鈥� 聽Minhinnick said.
Finding parts was a big problem. He said it was a case of placing advertisements and getting out and looking.
鈥淚 found two heads for the motor that were so rusted out they were of no use,鈥� said Minhinnick, illustrating the problems he faced. 鈥淔inally I found two tractors, one in Kelliher and the other in Spiritwood and from these I obtained most of the parts I still needed,鈥� he said.
Restoration is now complete, except for a paint job he hopes to do this fall, and is 100 per cent original, he added. The tractor will be painted a dull green, with red wheels to match the original paint job. Commenting on how well old tractors like the Hart Parr have stood up through the years Minhinnick points out you can still see some of the original paint in places.
Hart Parr tractors were built in Iowa and the company was eventually bought out by Oliver. In fact, Minhinnick said if you check the tag on the tractor it reads Oliver Hart Parr. The tractor was called a Hart Parr 18-36. The 18 refers to the draw bar horsepower of the tractor, while the 36 is the horse-power produced at the tractor鈥檚 belt pulley.
Minhinnick has been involved in restoring old tractors for quite a few years. He is a member of an Antique Machinery Club at North Battleford that restores one or two tractors a year for the Western Development Museum in that city. Minhinnick just recently returned from a week in North Battleford where he helped with a large heritage show that attracted over 5,000 patrons.
Asked what he will do with the Hart Parr now that it is restored, Minhinnick said it will end up in the Tisdale and District Museum. He said eventually he would like to restore a grain separator that he could hook up to the tractor. Other future restoration plans for Minhinnick include a 1939 John Deere and a 1928 McCormick Deering that he will team with Ted Schwanke to restore.
