Like a lot of people who grew up in rural Kansas, Michael Hinton spent a portion of his summer watching wheat harvest around his family’s home on a five-acre hobby farm outside of Newton.

For most, these are just fond memories of the simpler times of childhood, but watching farmers work fields next to his home sparked what would become a passion for Hinton in adulthood ­— tractors.

Collecting, restoring, showing and talking tractors, especially vintage ones from his childhood is how Hinton has stayed connected to his youth while moving around the Midwest for his career before landing back in Hutchinson five years ago working in agricultural sales and marketing.

BONDING EXPERIENCE

While those early memories provided the initial flicker of interest, it wasn’t until Hinton was married that his adult fascination with tractors was fully ignited.

“My father-in-law has a collection of 18 to 20 Farmall tractors in various stages of restoration so that kind of got me hooked,” he says.

The two bonded over the hobby of caring for and restoring the machinery, which included hunting for parts. In a bid to make that job easier, Hinton created a website for other enthusiasts to exchange spare parts or locate period-specific decals to lend authenticity to reconditioning projects.

Today, Hinton, with support from his wife and daughter, hosts www.talkingtractors.com to connect “generations past, present and future.”

COLLECTING COMMUNITY

Hinton began collecting tractors when he and his wife were living on a small acreage outside of West Plains, Mo., and he needed something stronger than a lawn mower to cut the yard.

“The property grew rocks, not grass,” Hinton says. “I got a 1949 Farmall Cub tractor to tend the grounds. It mowed maybe once in its life on that property because I didn’t want to damage the restoration work that had been done to the tractor.”

Shortly after, he added a Farmall H and a Farmall 340 that took over the garage because the property didn’t have a barn. He had to sell the collection for a subsequent move, and he’s currently looking for a farm near Hutchinson with space to store full-sized tractors.

While partial to Farmall tractors, Hinton doesn’t discriminate against any brand or paint color.

“My home office has tractors of every color, shape and size,” he says. “I still have my tractors, just in a smaller form.”

Hinton says driving a tractor gives him a sense of solitude, but the biggest reason he’s a proponent of preserving the heritage of the antiques is the communal bonds they represent.

“Everybody’s got a family member or knows someone who had a farm and a tractor,” he says.

TRACTOR CELEBRATION

Part of that connection is for the established community of hobbyists devoted to keeping antique tractors in operating condition, but Hinton also wants to introduce new faces to his ag-based pastime so he founded Antique Tractor Preservation Day, which will be observed Aug. 22 this year.

“Kansas is truly home and I wanted to do something to give back to the state,” Hinton says. “It’s about agriculture and the state of Kansas because agriculture is the backbone of our economy and state.”

In 2024, the Great Plains Antique Tractor Club marked the day with a parade and the local post office offered a commemorative postmark for letters mailed there that day. Hinton says people in 24 states requested the postmark, as well as from people as far away as Germany and China. The post office will offer another custom postmark this year.

Hinton also hopes to see the day grow beyond Kansas with tractor clubs, schools and other organizations marking the occasion to celebrate not only antique tractors but rural heritage as well.

“I want it to become a global event,” Hinton says. “I want to bring recognition first and foremost to Kansas and our agricultural heritage, but it’s even bigger than Kansas.”

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