Stan Rauch
Manager, Prairie Village

By just about any standard of measurement, the 51st Annual Stream Threshing Jamboree was a big success. Judging by the large number of comments received, and observations made, it was indeed an exceptionally good one.

Jamboree visitors saw lots of red as we had 255 International Harvester tractors registered. On Friday 124 of them were in the IH feature parade and there were 180 on Saturday. On Friday there were 137 tractors other than IH in the giant machinery parade which is the second highest number since records started being kept in 1999. And then on Saturday there were 206 non-feature tractors in the machinery parade which is the 3rd largest number in the past 14 years.

We had an especially high number of tractors and associated equipment at this Jamboree.

The Saturday tractor pulls, especially the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pullers Association event, exceeded expectations. Moving the Great Plains pull into a 1:00 p.m. start time and the Outlaws at 7:00 worked well in all respects. There was a huge crowd at the Saturday night Outlaw pull with an educated estimate putting the number at over 5,000.

The traffic flow from Highway 34 into the village went well, considering the large number of vehicles involved. The free shuttle bus service from Madison was a contributing positive factor in reducing the number of vehicles coming into the parking area.

Overall, the Jamboree had an extremely strong attendance, possibly even more than last year’s 50th Anniversary event. At any rate, we seemed to have a lot of happy visitors from across the state and the nation.

The winners of the S.D. Home Baked Pie Contest on Thursday evening at the appreciation supper put on by the board of directors were: first place, Mary Dorsman from Garretson with her Amich apple cream pie: second place, Mickie Kreidler from Madison with her lemon sponge pie; and third place , Margaret Griebel from Monroe with her sour cream raisin pie.

If you have any comments or suggestions pertaining to the Jamboree, please let me know at 256-3644, e-mail prairiev@rapidnet.com or write to PO Box 256, Madison. Continuing to increase our efficiency with all aspects of the event, and the village in general, is always a priority.

If you have some good photos that you took at the village this season, we would be pleased to receive them and perhaps include them in our website photo galleries or in conjunction with our other promotional endeavors.

The 2014 Jamboree will feature the Hart-Parr Oliver Collectors National Show. With it being a big national show, there will most assuredly be a very large number of folks in attendance.

Although we close for the season on Labor Day, we will continue to accommodate campers into early October. A convenient self- check-in station is located near the gift shop.

Actually, we do have one more event coming up this year as the Pumpkin Train will be held on October 5. This very popular event will again feature kids riding the train to our pumpkin patch and picking their pumpkins. We had a record 492 kids participate last year.

With the end of our official season being Monday, this will be my last column for the year. Thanks to the Madison area business community for the wonderful support of our various events and the village in general. Special sincere thanks to the many Prairie Village volunteers whose dedicated assistance is a major part of what enables us to continue to move forward with positive momentum. We have had an exceptionally good 2013 season.