Nelson Pioneer Farm celebrates 50 years with Fall Festival

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Flintknapper T.J. Onken, of Pella, had arrowheads and ax heads on display at the Fall Festival at Nelson Pioneer Farm Saturday.
Herb Lobberecht, of Eddyville, had his tractor on display at the Nelson Pioneer Farm Saturday that he had ornately decorated as a tribute to the fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Herald photo by Duane Nollen
Woodworker Gary Dannels, of Beacon, explains how he made a wooden reindeer to Cole Scanlon, 9, of Oskaloosa, at the Fall Festival at Nelson Pioneer Farm Saturday. Herald photo by Duane Nollen

September 22, 2008

By DUANE NOLLEN The Oskaloosa Herald Mon Sep 22, 2008, 01:42 PM CDT

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.

“This is a natural progression from that,” he said.

Flintknapping is an ancient art that almost disappeared.

“By 1900, making arrowheads was a lost art, even to Native Americans,” he said. White flintknappers kept the art alive, he added.

It takes anywhere from a half hour to make a small arrowhead to two hours to make a large arrowhead, Onken said. A 6-inch ax head can take 60 hours to make, using pre-historic methods, or just six hours, with modern equipment, he said.

Ax heads are made from granite and arrowheads are made from flint, chert or obsidian, he said.

Gary Dannels, of Beacon, makes furniture from willows and birch bark, and he had some of his wares on display at the Fall Festival.

“This is our first year here at the Pioneer Festival,” Dannels said. He and his assistant, Mike Auwaerter, have a woodworking shop in Beacon, where they make furniture and picture frames.

“We make chairs, rockers, love seats and we do a line of tables. We do dining table chair sets. We do all kinds of dressers and wardrobes,” he said. Willow picture frames are a large part of their business too, he added.

Dannels said he also has a pool table on display at his workshop that is made from sticks and bark.

Dannels loves to work with wood, but it’s not a hobby for him, it’s a business. But he does have fun with his work.

“I call myself a ‘twigologist.’ ... I just stick around,” Dannels quipped.

Making furniture takes varying amounts of time.

It “depends on what mood I’m in and what’s on the radio,” he said.

Cole Scanlon, 9, of Oskaloosa, took some time in the morning to check out a wooden reindeer that Dannels made and had on display.

“I do five sizes of these reindeer,” Dannels said. A 32-inch deer has 32-inch legs and a 32-inch body.

Dannels said he and his assistant were going to do a wooden sign demonstration at the Fall Festival.

Herald Editor Duane Nollen can be reached by email at oskynews@oskyherald.com