The White River Valley Antique Association (WRVAA) show takes place in Elnora, Indiana. According to their website (https://wrvaa.org/), the show attracts over 18,000 visitors yearly to see 700 tractors, steam engines, antique cars, trucks, and horse demonstrations. We certainly wouldn’t dispute those numbers. It was a really big show.
This was the third trip to Elnora for the Farm Jeep. The first two times, we saw average interest in the display. In past years, the weather had been hot, and we were located in the fairground area with the largest display of tractors.
Car, Truck, or Tractor?
The show is spread across two distinct areas. In addition to the county fairgrounds, the WRVAA has recreated an early 1900s village with tree-lined streets. There is the demonstration area, the featured tractor display, trucks large and small, classic cars, and working horses.
The classic cars and trucks are displayed in a shady area across from the ice cream shop. Although we have always maintained that the Farm Jeep should be displayed with the tractors, that shade was calling our name. As we stopped by the entrance gate, the guard said, “Well, with that implement on the back, I think you can park anywhere you want.”
Location, location, location
There was lots of space in the classic car area. There was shade – and we could park across from the ice cream shop!
The ice cream shop is located at one corner of the village with all its buildings (a schoolhouse, bank, general store, blacksmith shop, and more) and, to the rear, more tractor displays. The ice cream is made using a hit-n-miss engine
And the finished product is delicious. We could envision people, young and old, strolling with their ice cream, enjoying the shade, and admiring the old cars and a Farm Jeep.
That was precisely what happened. We drew the largest number of visitors we have ever seen in a multi-day show, and the numbers increased each day. We also modified our display to accommodate the many golf carts and side-by-sides driving by.
There were lots of people riding around—so many that on Saturday, a line stretched a quarter mile down the fairground road. The shot below was taken across from our display.
We chatted with our car and truck neighbors. They were all amazed at the crowds the Farm Jeep drew. Frankly, so were we.
The rest of the show
We walked the showgrounds each day before the crowds arrived looking for items of interest. We found two items indirectly related to the Jabez Love story and David Friday.
Our friend Daryl Dempsey owns one of these machines, but we have never seen at a show. You can read about David Friday here.
Daryl also told us that Love’s 1939 redesigned tractor front grill resembled the Silver King tractor. We spotted a couple of Silver King tractors at the show, the first we can remember seeing.
Something else that caught our attention was a Ford 8N with a mid-mount mower.
Thanks to our friend Clint Dixon, who sent us a Ford implement book, we believe this is a Ferguson mower.
And then there was this…
One thing we noticed over the four days we were at the show was that the classic car display changed each day. Some of that was intentional. One collector with a variety of cars said he would bring a different car each day (he would drive them from his nearby home) depending on the expected crowd. On the day when over 600 school children were to attend, he displayed his classic street rod. On the final day, he displayed his 1948 Dodge sedan.
Pictured above is a 2022 Roxor parked next to our display. We never saw the owner. It was there when we arrived on the final morning of the show. We aren’t sure what made the owner think this vehicle was a classic anything. However, it turned into a teaching moment for us.
We tell people that buying an old Jeep is a much wiser investment than a side-by-side. Unlike the Roxor which isn’t street legal in Indiana, a nicely restored CJ can be had for less than this Jeep wanna-be. It doesn’t even come close.
Lessons learned
Since the early days of attending shows, we have worked hard to get the Jeep accepted as a member of the tractor world. This show proved that if we can give people an opportunity to view the Jeep in comfort, they will willingly accept it for what it is—something very special.
As we were loading the Jeep for the trip home, an Amish farmer approached us. He asked us all about how the Jeep worked as a tractor. He thanked us for the information and drove away on his tractor, pulling a wagon full of family members. Perhaps we set his mind in motion.
There is an early ad aimed at women and youngsters that goes “If you can drive a car, you can drive a Jeep. And if you can drive a Jeep, you can operate a tractor.” We could hear the farmer thinking…”If I can drive a tractor – and the Jeep is a tractor – I can drive a Jeep….” Just saying…