REMEMBERING HAMMTOWN

1950 article brings early custom combining operation roaring back to life

Gail Compton

Allen Jacobson, Tolley, North Dakota, discovered this article in a 1950 issue of the Renville County Farmer in Mohall, North Dakota, and shared it with us. Written by Gail Compton, then agricultural editor of the Chicago Tribune the article captures the rhythms and routines of custom combining in the years immediately following World War II. “Caution next mile, Hammtown combine caravan.” That sign on the back of a big lumbering truck poking down the highway in the heart of the wheat belt is likely to be your first glimpse of “Hammtown,” the self-contained traveling harvest city with a population of 23. Then for the next mile along the highway will be strung a strange assortment of grain trucks, huge self-propelled Massey-Harris combines, sleeping and dining trailers, and an assortment of…

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Farm Collector (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2022

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