Western Illinois Threshers Show

Published 8:58 am Friday, July 31, 2026

HAMILTON — The 59th annual Western Illinois Threshers Bee and Antique Show will begin Friday, Aug. 7, near Hamilton, and continue with three days of demonstrations and activities Aug. 8-9.

A $5 commemorative button allows admission for all three days to those 12 years and older. Children under 12 are admitted free. Buttons are now on sale at Harnetiaux Farm Store just east of Hamilton and are sold at the gates during the show.

This year’s show highlights the International line of tractors and trucks, and Cub Cadet garden tractors. Parades of antique cars, trucks, tractors, and steam engines brought by exhibitors will run through the grandstand at 3 p.m. Saturday and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

A 1961 560 Wheatland International owned by Les and Candy Harnetiaux is the featured tractor on this year’s button. The featured truck is a 1928 International owned by Larry and Cheryl Buckert of Warsaw. A Cub Cadet M-100 is the featured garden tractor.

A Farmall B tractor will be given away at the end of the show, as well as a handmade quilt, farm toys, and other items.

On the north side of the first large building, near the quilt display, there will be a “bed turning” demonstration. This event will show a stack of quilts on a bed, turned back and displayed one at a time, each with its own special story. These quilt talks will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8. A free drawing will be held at the end of the 2 p.m. quilt talk, with the winner receiving a quilted wall hanging.

A full dinner is offered each evening at 6 p.m. for $10. Friday night is a ribeye steak dinner, with potato salad and baked beans. Saturday features smoked pork chops, au gratin potatoes, and green beans. Food vendors are set up all around the grounds during the day with many kinds of foods.

Entertainment Friday night is an antique tractor pull in the grandstand followed by music by Bocephus Wayne around 8 p.m. On Saturday evening, hear music by “The Boys” during and after the pork chop supper. The quilt auction is at 8 p.m. Saturday, followed by more music.

Throughout the weekend there are displays and demonstrations. Steam engines are used to power threshing machines and the large and small sawmills. A large collection of rail handcars is exhibited, and rail motor car rides are available on the track around the grounds.

Friday’s schedule starts with tractor games at 9 a.m. in the grandstand. A kids’ pedal tractor pull is planned at 3 p.m., and an antique tractor pull at 6 p.m. in the grandstand.

Saturday begins with a pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. There will be pony pulling at 8 a.m. at the grandstand. In the afternoon, see tractor games at noon in the grandstand, and horse plowing at 1 p.m. in the field. The antique tractor and car parade begins at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Sunday begins with a pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. and worship in the country church at 8:30 a.m. There is another antique tractor pull at 9:30 a.m. and horse plowing at 1 p.m.

Times for some Sunday activities have changed. Keith Yex and his crew offer fun and games for kids at the grandstand at noon. The Sunday antique tractor and car parade will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Winners of the antique tractor, handmade quilt, pedal tractor, and other prizes will be announced after Sunday’s parade.

See sheep shearing, rock crushing, corn shelling and cornmeal grinding, pony-powered threshing, small gas engines, quilting, and rug weaving. The growing village on the 80-acre grounds includes two log cabins, a church, a one-room school, a print shop, a blacksmith shop, and a post office.

A circa-1850s Bolton Barn has been rebuilt on the grounds, along with an antique gas station, two large museum buildings, and two renovated TP&W depots. Many of the buildings have histories of their own, having been moved onto the grounds from the region.

Sessions of bingo are held throughout the weekend in the large shelter house. A flea market fills the northeast end of the grounds during the show.

Fun for kids includes a petting zoo, hands-on corn play, a playground at the schoolyard, the pedal pull on Friday afternoon, and old-time games at the grandstand on Sunday.

To honor the 2025 Hancock County bicentennial and the United States’ 250th year in 2026, a special exhibit will honor the 160 family farms registered as centennial farms with the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

In addition, there is a display of Hancock County’s 14 sesquicentennial farms, and the one bicentennial farm honored by the ILDA.

Camping hookups of 20 and 30 amps are available. Golf carts/ATVs are not rented on the grounds but are allowed. Owners must register their vehicles and pay a $20 fee at the headquarters building upon arrival at the show.

To find the Western Illinois Threshers Show, turn north at the signs in Hamilton at North 19th Street and continue on the blacktop two miles north. Parking is free.

For more information about this summer’s event, call President Mark Weirather at 319-795-1848 or go to www.westernillinoisthreshers.org.