Tue, Dec 02 2008
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Published September 22, 2008 02:37 pm - Flintknapper T.J. Onken, of Pella, had arrowheads and ax heads on display at the Fall Festival at Nelson Pioneer Farm Saturday. Nelson Pioneer Farm celebrates 50 years with Fall Festival By DUANE NOLLEN The Oskaloosa Herald OSKALOOSA — The Nelson Pioneer Farm celebrated its 50th anniversary Saturday with the annual Fall Festival that featured exhibits from Mahaska County’s past and present.
The Fall Festival is the biggest event of the year at Nelson Pioneer Farm, said farm curator Pam Howard. It started around 9:30 when local scouts raised the American Flag. The festival featured traditional events such as oat threshing with a vintage steam engine, an elementary school spelling bee, a horseshoe throwing tournament, an old-fashioned country dinner and a 77-entry parade around the farm grounds. Also, the festival featured new items such as Herb Lobberecht’s ornate tractor decorated as a tribute to the nation’s veterans, and there were more traditional festival participants such as a flintknapper and a “twigologist.” Lobberecht, of Eddyville, had his tractor parked next to the flagpole in the center of the pioneer farm complex. It’s a glossy black 1944 Farmall H tractor. The rear fenders were decorated with an airbrushed eagle and F-16 fighter jets, painted by Ed Birmingham, of Des Moines. The front of the tractor featured the names of those Iowa residents who have lost their lives in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are 58 names on the tractor and there will have to be some more names added to the list, Lobberecht said. “There are 67 total that I know of,” he said. It took about a year to restore and decorate the tractor, Lobberecht said. Lobberecht is a veteran of the Iowa National Guard, and he came up with the idea for the decorated tractor while talking to his friend, Steve Besco. They decided to make it a tribute to those service members who have lost their lives in combat. “It’s absolutely gorgeous,” Howard said of Lobberecht’s tractor. T.J. Onken, of Pella, is the keeper of an ancient art — he is a flintknapper, a person who makes arrowheads and ax heads from flint. “I do the axes and I collect the flint,” Onken said Saturday morning. “I’ve been collecting for approximately 10 years and as an artist making the axes 20 years.” He had his handiwork on display at the Fall Festival. He is also the publisher of the Modern Lithic Artists Journal, the only journal in the nation focused on flintknapping. For Onken, flintknapping is a hobby and a business. “Technically, I’m retired,” he said. Onken said he comes from family who is involved in collecting pre-historic arrowheads. 
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