Yes, I can agree with what you said. In addition I would like to mention that we have been very fortunate to have the Floyd County Museum. At a time when the Charles City plant was being torn down, those folks were scrambling to grab every shread of paper they could. As a result they have a wonderful library of data, which they share with many of our members. Unfortunately, Charles City was the tractor plant, so, most of the info there only concerns tractors. As we proceed with the project in South Bend, I believe more data will surface on tractors built there, and on tillage tools. There are several active organizations there who probably have some information they will be able to share. I don&#039;t feel we will be able to get the maximum benefit until such time as we have established a museum, with an endowment capable of supporting an administrator, curator, and staff. Still, there are still Oliver people in that town, ex-employees, who very much support us. Some of these folks may have important data. I have heard stories of truckloads of old files and records being hauled off and destroyed after Oliver factories were closed, those records would be priceless to us today. I don&#039;t feel that HPOCA will be getting strongly into going out and digging up these bones, rather, it is my opinion that at such time as collecting implements become strong enough to support it, the book writers will research this. They will go out, collect the data, then write books containing this data in hopes their books will sell. It would be unusual to have organizations as active as the Floyd County Museum at every plant, so, I suspect much of the data will be recovered from 2nd hand stores, flea markets, and ex-employees, which as you know is much more time consuming and expensive. I also have noticed an increase in the popularity of collecting implements. In addition I notice that the literature vendors are stocking more literature and manuals on implements.
Say &#039;Hi!&#039; to Virginia for me, and hope she is feeling well! See y&#039;all in Wentzville!
Later, Andy