October 5, 2017

Members of the tractor restoration club will preserve a tractor that belonged to the last homesteader under the Homestead Act of 1862. The tractor will be preserved at the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test and Power Museum on east campus and then displayed at the Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice. The1945 Allis-Chalmers Model C was used by Ken Deardorff at the homestead he carved out of the Alaskan wilderness in 1974. He left it behind when he left 10 years later. Last year the group Friends of Homestead raised money to bring the tractor to Nebraska. A helicopter lifted the rusted orange machine to Big Lake, Alaska, where a crate was built for it. It was put on a barge to Anchorage and then loaded onto a ship bound for Seattle and then shipped to UNL. October 3, 2017. Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication.