The city of Port Moody is getting a new tractor. But it won’t be able to do much about the weeds growing taller at the old firehall site, for instance.
The tractor is a 1920 Fordson that has been on display in a field adjacent to Anmore’s village hall for years.
But Anmore wants to get rid of the rusting relic by the end of the month and Jim Millar, the executive director of the Station Museum, said it would be a shame for the tractor to end up in a junkyard.
“I think it’s quite an interesting piece,” he said.
So, following a pitch by Millar and the president of the Port Moody Heritage Society, Dave Ritcey, at last Tuesday’s meeting of city council’s committee of the whole, a special meeting of council voted to accept Anmore’s offer to relocate the tractor at the village’s expense. The tractor will be stored at the city’s public works yard until staff can make a recommendation on a permanent location as well as report on any potential liability issues related to its display.
Millar said a spot underneath the Moody Street overpass would be ideal as the tractor would be sheltered from the elements and enliven an otherwise dead space.
It would also join the old log roller already located there, forming the beginnings of a bit of a collection of artifacts from the area’s industrial past, Ritcey said, adding that may be the heritage society’s next area of interest as it winds down commemoration of the centenary of the First World War.
Millar said the tractor may even be an appropriate link between the two eras as it was manufactured by car maker Henry Ford & Son to address a need of farmers in northern Europe and England to be able to work their land despite a shortage of horses that were killed during the war.
He added that little is known about Anmore’s tractor, other than it was once owned by a local farmer named Norm Farley, and there’s a hornet’s nest currently residing in the radiator.
“It reminds people there were once farms here,” Millar said.
And once the tractor is in Port Moody’s possession, he said, the museum and heritage society can work together to plan for its possible restoration. Although he figures it’s well beyond ever running again.
