The Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society's seventh annual Callaway Vintage Tractor Drive is set for Aug. 25, this year covering an approximately 30-mile route in the Readsville and Portland areas.
Owners of pre-1970 tractors far and wide will begin gathering between 7:30-9 a.m. that morning at the old Highway Department shed on the west side of State Road D south of Readsville, before the drive kicks off at 9:30 a.m. The precession will head toward Reform, taking a morning break at the CC Store before heading north toward CR-428 and the nuclear plant. They'll wind up in Portland for lunch before returning to Readsville that afternoon.
Historical Society curator Barb Huddleston said the drive route changes each year, and that Portland was selected this year in part to utilize the new community center for their lunchtime meal stop.
"The idea when they started was to go to different areas in the county, so people could see the lay of the land," said Huddleston. "Lewis Baumgartner helped start it; he had been to one somewhere, and thought it would be a type of a fundraiser we could start. It's been pretty successful."
There is an early registration fee of $30 per tractor, and a $40 fee for day-of registration. Part of that will go towards insurance costs and to the Portland Community Center for the food, while the rest of the proceeds will benefit the Historical Society.