Dolores is sporting some new agricultural yard art, courtesy of Mayor Val Truelsen.
An early 20th century International Harvester Hay Press has found a new home next to the old Dolores Star office on Highway 145. The classic machine is part of Truelsen’s historical farm and mining equipment collection, and was too good to just be stored away on his ranch up the river.
“I bought it for $125 from a scrapyard in Ignacio 20 years ago. I knew I had to have one of these,” Truelsen says. “It’s one of my best pieces.”
The large contraption is rusty but was hardly used, he said. It probably fell victim to more modern bailers in the 1930s that had a pick-up reel to scoop hay from the windrow instead of having to load hay by hand.
“It will still run if I put a motor and a belt on it. The bearings and gears are in perfect working order,” Truelsen says with pride. “It’s getting a lot of comments at the restaurant.”
The baler was one of the original portable presses on wheels. Designed to be pulled by a horse or tractor, the hay would be top loaded by hand into a hopper. Then a crankshaft connected to a series of gears and levers move the “horse head” an arm that compresses hay into a bale that is passed through a chute, eventually ringing a bell. Workers then attached wires to the bale, and it drops off the end.
Stop-and-look historical artifacts attract tourism, and have a type of retro artistic appeal that makes a town more interesting. Truelsen has plans to mount an old engine on the press, and put up an informational sign.
“That’s the idea, to give people a reason to slow down and pull over in our town,” he said. “Then down the road, they can stop again and check out the Galloping Goose.”