Engines roar at Prater’s Mill: Antique tractor show brings collectors from across the South

Published 12:02 am Sunday, May 5, 2019

VARNELL — They glistened under the afternoon sun, looking like they’d just rolled out of the factory. But the roar of their engines showed the antique tractors at Prater’s Mill weren’t just museum pieces but still-working parts of America’s agricultural history.

“I think our count was 44 tractors here today,” said Mike Trotter, a member of the Peach State Antique Tractor and Engine Club, which hosted its annual show at the historic mill Saturday.

“We had people bringing in tractors from across north Georgia, from Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina,” said Trotter, a Dalton resident.

Trotter says many of the club’s members, and other antique tractor enthusiasts, grew up on farms and operated tractors in their youth.

“I worked on a farm, but I never operated a tractor. So when I got old enough to buy a tractor, I did,” he said.

In fact, he says, he now owns four.

Club member Randy Stanton has 43 tractors.

Stanton, a Cohutta resident, says he was attracted to the hobby because of his love of engines and mechanical devices.

“Meets like this give us the opportunity to trade or buy and sell parts. Anything you can’t buy you have to make. I don’t know that it’s necessary to be mechanically inclined (to collect antique tractors), but it definitely helps,” said Stanton, who has his own machine shop.

The show is also a fundraiser for the club and for the scholarships it presents to local students.

Officials said they had a pretty good crowd when the show opened Saturday morning. A torrential rain later in the morning drove spectators away, but by early afternoon the sun was back in the sky and people were starting to wander the mill grounds again.

Chatsworth resident Gary Walker brought his grandsons to see the tractors.

“They like cars, motorcycles, four-wheelers, so I thought they’d like this, and they have had a good time,” he said.

Prater’s Mill Foundation President Melanie Chapman said those who came out enjoyed themselves.

“They had a good variety of tractors and pieces of equipment for them to look at,” she said. “They had a petting zoo. They even had a little train pulled by a tractor for them to ride on. They had a lot of kids, which is typical.”

Vendors sold hot dogs, barbecue, Brunswick stew and other foods, as well as ice cream churned by a steam engine made in 1888.

Chapman said the show brings people to Prater’s Mill that might not otherwise come to the mill.

“We are just tickled that the Peach State Antique Tractor and Engine Club has its show here,” she said. “Not everyone is into history, but some of them, especially men and boys, like engines and mechanical things.”

Chapman said that many of those who did attend the show took time to tour the historic grist mill, which was built in 1855. The Prater’s Mill Foundation hosts the annual Prater’s Mill Country Fair, which began in 1971.