Some Friendly Competition

The Encampment/Riverside Lions Club arena was filled with tractors from 3350 pounds to 8330 pounds Saturday morning in anticipation of the 2024 Coppers Day Festival.

After participants registered, many participants took their tractors onto the main highway for the parade.

The crowd was small and one little boy in particular was thrilled to see the parade. Crosby Mundt of Saratoga loves tractors, his mom said. The short parade ended and the organizers, The Chug N Tug Tractor Club, began with the first class of tractors with a weight of 3001 to 3500 pounds.

Tractor pulls are serious business for the participants and one particular woman, Janelle Hoaglund, has been competing since 2006. Hoaglund also competes in the professional tractor pulls with her 10,000 pound Massey Fergeson, which she had on display at the arena.

Hoaglund said her father would not bring his tractors for the competition because he was too embarrassed as they were not pretty enough. After he passed away, Hoaglund decided she and her nephews Bruce and Allen Brown would bring the tractors to compete in 2006.

They normally bring three tractors. One year they brought four and loaded them on the low boy. It was pretty sketchy, Hoaglund said. One was kind of hanging off the back of the trailer. “Those are the most tractors I have put on a trailer and I will never do it again,” Allen said. The group comes from Steamboat, Colorado. Dian Bauer, secretary of the Chug and Tug Tractor Club said it was kind of fun to watch them unload and load those tractors. They all laughed as they reminisced about the four tractors on one trailer.

The most fun for the group is the competition between themselves, as they drive the same tractor in each class they compete in.

“Bruce has the most wins,” Hoaglund admitted.

Bruce explained that there is an art to driving a tractor in a tractor pull.

“You have to look for the better areas on the track and start a little further back,” Bruce said.

He described how he used his steering brakes when one wheel is spinning, so that he can continue down the track. His theory must work, as he came in first with their 1956 Case 400 at 8330 pounds with a combined total of 224’6” for Saturday and Sunday. On the same tractor Allen came in second 224’ with Hoaglund coming in third at 217’7”.

Hoaglund admits it has been hard the past few years with Encampment members losing Lynn Acord and Fred Lorenz. The have good memories of sitting on the deck of the Spirit West Lodge east of Riverside telling stories We would tell stories and go to the Bear Trap or the Mangy Moose to eat, then go to the Polka dance until 10 p.m. and end up back at Spirit West telling stories.

It is bitter sweet coming back year after year and hearing of the loss of another member of the club. This year’s tractor pull was dedicated to Lorenz. The 2023 tractor pull was dedicated to Acord.

Raymond Dirks, of Encampment, participates in the tractor pull. He moved to Encampment from Kansas around six years ago. His granddaughter and grandson-in-law live in Kansas, but make the trek to participate in the tractor pull each year. They too have a family competition amongst themselves. Dirks grandson-in-law David Kroeker was bound to beat his wife, RaeLynn, who had beat her grandfather - all on the same tractor.”

It was pretty fun to see his wheels spinning on the track and she drove past it.

RaeLynn said. “I did it.”

In the spectator section, Charlene was cheering on her husband, Raymond.

“You need to beat the girls,” she said.

“He lives for this weekend,” Charlene said.

Things had fallen together for them to move to Encampment. They had been leasing their land out in Kansas, and the renters were ready to buy. The couple had worked as campground hosts for a couple of years and had been coming to Encampment for several years.