A lot of people in Woodland have never been to the Heidrick Ag History Center. Which is a real shame, because it is actually a very interesting place. The 'museum' is actually two separate, but similar displays. One building houses old farming equipment, mostly tractors, and a few other machines- while the other building (Hays Antique Truck Museum) is dedicated to trucks, with a few other small displays. On the little informational handout, they describe this as "Fred C. Heidrick Antique Ag Collection, the world's largest, and most unique, collection of antique agricultural equipment and the Hays Antique Truck Museum, also recognized as the largest of its kind in the world." Just think- both of these world-class places in our own town!
Some of the basics right up front: Hours- Monday - Friday 10am to 5pm. Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Sunday 10am to 4 pm. The location is basically the 5 freeway, and Road 102. Entrance fee is $6.00 for adults, and that gets you into both displays. Thier phone number is 666-9700. And they do host special events. In fact, the last time I was there, someone had their wedding reception going on in the building. The one warning I have to make about this place though: no air conditioning! I went in the afternoon in August- it was about 97 degrees outside, and not a whole lot cooler inside. I would have stayed longer to read more of the information if it were cooler. I would recommend either a visit in the cooler months, or in the early morning. (Okay...I lied. Keeping with the theme, they do have 'antique air-conditioning'...they hand out hand-fans when you go in) If you've got comments, make sure you leave them at the bottom of the page!
What? Did Woodland actually have Streetcars at one time?
Helpin' with the milkin'. One of the displays when you get tired of tractors.
This is a big machine. I believe it would cut, and separate grain.
Another tractor- with people for size comparison. I believe
she might be a midget,
Okay- now we've moved on to the Hays Antique Truck Museum.
They've got a lot of nice things here, and it is a little easier to identify
with trucks, than tractors. 1912 International. Big wheels were used to gain traction.
Boy Scouts used this truck to install the mile markers (over 3000) on the "Lincoln Highway"
Once again, nice little displays- not just a line of trucks.
This was an early gas/service
Okay...so it's a line of trucks...
Very cool yellow and black trucks.
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Okay-
before you get too excited- I'm not sure that there are a lot of other
antique ag equipment museums out there to compare these with. But whether
or not these displays are the world's best makes no difference. Both are
interesting, cheap, and local. You really should go take a look.
For
some reason, I find this to be the most interesting tractor on display.
This is a 'Fordson Snowmobile'. From 1925-1926 it brought mail to Truckee.
It has a hauling capacity of 5 tons. Hopefully you can see it here, but
it is just a regular tractor, with the tracks replaced with these spinning
screw-like devices that push it through the snow. The 'screws' are hollow,
and seem to be fairly light weight. The sled that it hauls is on skis.
It can also traverse bare ground.
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