Old Tractor Ready to Rev Up Fair Publicity

The tractor proudly stands on this year’s Ventura County Fair poster, blazing in fire engine red, a symbol of Ventura’s agricultural history. But only a few months ago, the tractor’s owner was thinking of scrapping it for spare parts.

Then the 1940 McCormick Farmall tractor was spotted by Ventura County Fair publicist Devlin Raley.

When Raley saw the tractor, standing alone in a corner of Jon Peterson’s farm, he fell in love.

“The image is strong and simple,” Raley said Tuesday morning at the unveiling of this year’s county fair poster. “But even more important, it makes a strong statement on the agricultural heritage of the county and the fair.”

The fair, whose theme this year is “Planting Memories,” runs Aug. 14-25.

Peterson was surprised that the old, beat-up tractor he bought at an Indiana auction a year ago would catch anybody’s eye.

Raley “kept looking at it and then walking away,” recalled Peterson. “When he said he liked it, I said ‘What? That’s terrible looking!’ ”

So when Raley selected the Farmall over the John Deere and other classic tractors Peterson has been collecting for the past seven years, a heavy-duty cleanup job was needed--quickly.

After two days of scrubbing and scraping the grime, grease and rust off of the tractor, the ugly duckling became a bright red swan.

Peterson was proud of his cleanup job, but even so, he says he was astonished with the way the tractor looks on the Ventura County Fair poster.

Now Peterson, who owns a mushroom ranch in Camarillo, has reconsidered his original idea of using the old Farmall for spare parts. Now, he says, he will keep the antique in his collection of 35 tractors.

“I don’t know what to do with it now,” Peterson said. “But with the picture and the publicity and all. I am probably going to restore it.”