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The ABC's of KSLM! Join Amanda Smith and Baron Robison as they have conversations! They cover local events, news, and business interviews for our local community!
Good morning, you guys. It is Amanda and Barron, the ABCs of KSLM Radio.
Baron Robison:Because Amanda and Barron are having conversations.
Amanda Smith:Yes. We are. And on the phone with us, we have Tim from the Great Oregon Steam Up. Good morning, Tim. How are you?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Good morning. How's everything going this morning down there?
Amanda Smith:It's going.
Baron Robison:We've got your flyer pulled up here on the studio. What a funny event you guys have planned for this weekend. Well, actually, I guess it's already gone last weekend and now we have this weekend. But can you give our listeners just a little idea of what you've had coming up here?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. This is, our 54th annual Great Oregon Steam Up. The Great Oregon Steam Up is something that started with just a bunch of old timers getting steaming ready with old steam engines and threshing demonstration, and it has grown into this huge event up here where, we've we've got steam traction engines, gas engines, electric trolleys, full scale, small scale, things for kids to do, things for everybody to do here. And it goes on.
Baron Robison:Well, and you said up here. So the flyer says PowerLand Heritage Park, but where exactly are you located?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. We are just off of I 5. Just actually, just west of I 5 by a quarter of a mile at exit 263. So and that's off of Brook Lake Road in Brooks, Oregon.
Amanda Smith:Tim, how did you guys get started 54 years ago?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Oh, I was genetically programmed to be here. My grandfather is one of the founding fathers here, so, my whole family's been involved with this, this event out here. So I've kind of been out here since there were no trees, and it was just a big open field.
Baron Robison:So I love that.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:It it's kinda like just the love of a a lot of these guys who were, you know, in their sixties seventies back in the seventies who who farmed, who were farmers, and they saw the transition between, like, horses and steam engines and gas engines, and they kinda lived through that era, and they were able to kinda capture that window here at Brooks for
Baron Robison:us. Well, and it looks like from the flyers that, you know, my my first image was trades when it says steam up, but I'm seeing some tractors. So is this really anything that's powered by steam?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Right. We've got lots of steam powered thing. We have stationary steam engines. We got rock crushers. We've got, we actually got a sawmill that runs off of steam powered.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:We have steam the steam traction engines actually move about the ground, and we can actually hook some of those steam traction engines that Doug up to different implement to run and demonstrate different demonstrations.
Baron Robison:Well, in a half an hour, tell us some of these you guys got going on.
Amanda Smith:Hey, guys. It's Amanda and Barron, the ABCs of KSLM Radio, and we are talking about the great Oregon steam up event that's happening this weekend. And Tim's on the phone with us telling us about it. Are you there, Tim?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:I'm here.
Amanda Smith:Alright. So I'm looking at your guys' flyers, and it says attractions and events. And some of it says with history comes alive, and you've got steam engines, equipment, cars, trucks, 14 heritage museums, trains, trolleys, tractors. I mean, the list goes on. But what so you guys have 14 heritage museums, is that right, at this event?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Correct. We've got 14 heritage museums plus a couple, special interest type clubs that are also affiliated out here. That kinda brings us all to life throughout the year, and the whole culmination comes to these events, that we have this weekend coming up and also last weekend. So it's kinda everybody gets together, opens their doors, and shows off their their stuff.
Baron Robison:I I did notice on their flyer, Tim, there's a there's a cost. It's not a lot, but there's a cost to the event. Can you tell the listeners how much would it cost to come out to this event?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Oh, yeah. No problem. It's, so what we're charging for admission is $17 for adults. We're asking for also $5 for parking, but that parking actually fee goes toward paying for, some new modern bathrooms, which we're almost reached our goal to have that for next year. Awesome.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Kids under 12 are free.
Amanda Smith:Oh, okay.
Baron Robison:What about 60 year old men who think they're still under 12? Because a man with 2 okay. Never mind. Never mind.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Well, I don't know. I'm I'm pushing that too. So
Baron Robison:I know.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:I know.
Baron Robison:And it looks like you do have a military discount?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yep. Military discount for, people coming in. Also, show your, military discount, your I mean, your ID card. Okay. And that's like they're actually
Amanda Smith:free if you have the military if you have your ID or you come and you your uniform, it's actually more than a discount. You get in for free.
Baron Robison:That's awesome. Yeah.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. Can't be free.
Amanda Smith:No. You cannot. And then you have seen your day, which is August 4th, and that's $3 off. Correct. Correct.
Amanda Smith:Awesome. How do you guys get all of these steam machinery out to Brooks? Are they stationed there year round, or do you guys bring them in?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:I would say about half of them are here year round. And then we kinda store them here, kinda keep them undercover and try to keep them, conserved or or taken care of during the wintertime, and, we bring them out in the spring. And, that's where we go from there. A lot of these and a lot of these displays and machineries are privately owned. So the the owners will either store in here or they will haul their own machinery in here.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:So these are all private collections for the steam up that primarily here.
Baron Robison:You know, one comment you made during our commercial break, I think, is interesting for the listeners. You know, we're all used to cars, So I 5 was our main thoroughfare. But before we had cars for a regular basis, the river was the main thoroughfare, and a lot of that was powered by steam. So So going up and out of Willamette became that version of I 5. So a lot of your stuff has some really great historical meaning to it.
Amanda Smith:Tim, do you guys have a website?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. We do have a website. We are at www.powerlandheritagepark.com.
Amanda Smith:Okay.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:And on that on that website, you can pull up the other events that we have here and open and you just tack on the event and I'll tell you all about it when it is, and we're pretty full for the rest of the summer. We've got lots great stuff coming up.
Baron Robison:Let's let's talk close if that's in a half an hour.
Amanda Smith:Hey, guys. It's Amanda and Barron, the ABCs of KSLM Radio, and we're chatting with Tim with the great organ steam up event that's happening this coming weekend, so on Saturday Sunday. And, Tim, I'm on your guys' website. I go I went ahead and pulled it up. And it looks like for the kids, you guys have a bunch of family fun activities that include a youth passport hunt for pins to collect, panning for kids.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Oh, yeah. They
Amanda Smith:have a firefighter challenge course. That sounds really cool. A fire bucket activity, pedal tractor pulling, and a big Lego display. You guys really went all out for the kids.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Oh, yeah. We do. And, you know, that's the generation coming. So and keep keep interested and kinda seeing where we come from and and where we're going in this great world of ours.
Amanda Smith:Absolutely. Looking at your website and the flyers and the videos, this truly is an event for really all ages.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. Yes.
Amanda Smith:Like, the older generation, the younger generation, the middle. So that's really cool.
Baron Robison:Well, and one of the things I love you doing with the the kids, Tim, is if you have kids that are 7, 8, 9 years old, what you have is so far back in history that they wouldn't even think about it.
Amanda Smith:It's all new.
Baron Robison:It's all new to them Yeah. But, it's it's so far back in history that here they sit with their tablets that they can play games on at age 6. So I'm glad you're bringing history alive for these kids. That's awesome.
Amanda Smith:Yeah. The firefighting challenge course. That that one really intrigues you.
Baron Robison:That one's awesome too.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:So Yeah. What's what's
Baron Robison:your favorite event out there, Tim?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:You know, I think my favorite is probably the the bread and butter of the place when we all started out here is threshing the threshing demonstrations. Threshing is where they take, like, an an old separator machine where they hold it out in the field back in the day and which we have several of those out here. And then they either hook it up to a a traction steam engine or a gas engine with a belt pulley, and they feed it with straw and separates the, straw from the oats or the wheat, whatever they're, thrashing with this year. I believe it's oats. And, and and they demonstrate how that works.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:You'll have a big pile of straw and, a big pile of wheat all ready to go to the grain elevators. So and that's quite a production. It takes several people to do that. And in this day and age, the whole equal part of that is the combination you see. The comb, the combines you see out in the field, for farming.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:That's what they do in one thing with 1 one person running it versus a whole operation with a dozen people running it back in the day.
Baron Robison:Let's get some more topics in just a little bit.
Amanda Smith:Hey, guys. It's Amanda and Barron, the ABCs of KSLM Radio. So Tim, you guys have a long list of demonstrations on your website. Can you touch on a few of those for us?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. The biggest ones I really like to see are the kids, events. We have a garden tractor pull, and this is kinda for all ages, kids alike, adults. And we have to actually garden have a garden tractor full pulling in a sled that they pull with weights, and they see how far they can get it going down the road. Usually, they all get a full pull.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Pedal tractor pull is great. Gets kid on a little pedal tractor, like from the old days tractors that they used. The kids used to pedal around and they pull weight. The mini railroad is something they can get on and right around. The youth passport gets everybody walking around our 62 acres out here and get some kinda kinda off their tablets for for one thing and I get some exercise in them.
Amanda Smith:Yeah.
Baron Robison:Well, and that's such a great statement because we do have an entire generation of kids that are, you know, 8, 9, 10, 11 years old, and so much of their life is virtual through a tablet. So you're taking this virtual world and bringing it to life for them. You're getting them off the tablet. That's a great comment.
Amanda Smith:It is. So you guys also have like a black smith demonstration, flour milling, logging skill demonstration, a sawmill in operation. So you guys have a lot of demonstrations like that. Can you kinda touch on those as well?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yeah. Sawmilling's great. It's, they actually take a raw log like they used to do it back in the, turn of the century, and they roll around to a trolley and they move it back and forth using belts and pulleys. They're all powered by a steam locomotive or or not locomotive, but a steam engine. Yeah.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:And then, one of the other things, a logging demonstration. They do some demonstration with, old time, how they used to yard logs up off the hills. Blacksmithing is another fun one. You can get in there and really the kids can really watch that. Anybody watched that?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:They'll demonstrate right before your eyes on blacksmithing. They've got an old belt driven machine shop and it kinda, the nice thing about that, it gets people's wheels turning on how things were done back then. The the gears, the the levers, the machines, the simple machines that were all converted to make our lives easier and how it's gotten to that point where we are today.
Baron Robison:Well, there's 2 other things that caught my attention on your website. You have music and you have food.
Amanda Smith:And a swap meet.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Yes. Yes. Oh, man. Yes. There's so much to this.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:Music, food, swap meet. We got live music. The swap meet's great. They bring vendors from all over the northwest. They come in and they peddle their wares.
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:And this is like Swap Meet stuff like old garden stuff, old tractor stuff, old engine stuff. There's just a lot of neat old stuff. If you're, arts and crafty type Pinterest type person and you're looking for that little project to do, you might be inspired by something you see laying there for sale on the ground.
Baron Robison:That's so awesome. We've got about 30 seconds left, Tim. Once again, if if wanted if we wanna get our tickets ahead of time, where do we go? What's the website to get our tickets ahead of time?
Tim from Great OR Steam-Up:If you just go to the, website that we have, Apparel and Heritage Park, you can get on there, and you can purchase tickets through our website.
Amanda Smith:Awesome. And you guys are open this Saturday Sunday. It looks like it starts at 7 AM and goes till 6 PM.
Baron Robison:Those are farmer hours.
Amanda Smith:Yep. And the location is at Powell Land Heritage Park or sorry, Power Land Heritage Park, and that's at 3995 Brook Lake Road Northeast in Brooks, Oregon. And shoot me an email, ma'am, at ksomradio if you want more information or can't find it. Thank you so much, Tim, for joining us. I really appreciate you.