By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

The draft horse pull at Central Kansas Flywheels Yesteryear Museum brought back memories for many in the audience -- especially Santa.

"I had a horse like that growing up," said Doug Austin, who has played Santa at Central Mall for the past five years. "He just let the kids climb up on his broad back and lay on him. He'd just walk around really gently. He loved us kids."

Austin enjoyed spending Saturday taking a step back in time at the Antique Tractor and Steam Engine Show at the Flywheels museum, 1100 W. Diamond Drive.

Events continue today with a free pancake breakfast from 6:30 to 9 a.m., followed by a non-denominational worship service in Wells Church on the grounds. Exhibits and demonstrations are planned throughout the day, including forage binding and shocking, steam powered threshing and babbitt pouring.

A parade of tractors is set for 11 a.m., and afternoon events include a traditional tractor pull and adults' and children's pedal tractor pulls.

Good crowd

Hundreds of people came to enjoy a pleasant day Saturday, seeing what life was like before powerful tractors, corner grocery stores and modern conveniences in general.

"We've got to get people out to see what it was like in the old days," said Flywheels board member Jerry May. "That's my objective."

At the Kansas Draft Horse Association Horse Pull, Bonnie and Clyde -- with a combined weight of 3,850 pounds -- were the winners. The pair, four-time winners of the heavyweight division at the Kansas State Fair, dragged a 6,850-pound sled 11 feet 7 inches.

Owner, Merle Beckman, of Mound City, said, "I have owned three or four of these teams." A horse trader, he said he has owned Bonnie and Clyde for four years.

After the horses pulled the sled, several antique tractors were brought out to have a go at it.

A 12-horsepower and two 18-horsepower tractors couldn't budge the thing, but a 38-horsepower John Deere and a 50-horsepower Case tractor managed to pull it the full 15 feet. Real horses are actually much stronger than the horsepower of a motor, Bill Daugherty, Fly Wheels volunteer and area farmer said.

"This is a good illustration of how strong horses really are," he said. "The average farm tractor in a field, when it pulls 100 percent of its weight, that's really good. A good horse team can pull 200 percent of their weight."

Rose, another horse was pulling her weight in a different part of the museum grounds Saturday. She was walking in circles, providing the horsepower to operate an 1890s press that squeezed the juice out of molasses cane. Five gallons of sap, when boiled down, produced two quarts of molasses, said Mike Ponton, who brought his horse and equipment from Longford to demonstrate the process.

Ponton said every town had someone who operated a press and produced molasses to provide a sweetener before processed sugar became widely available in grocery stores.

"I'm glad to show people how it used to be done," he said. "We don't know how easy we have it."