Steel Skarecrow to return to Threshing Days
Staff writer
Steel Skarecrow, a Wichita-based band that headlined the 2021 Country Threshing Days celebration at Goessel, will perform at the festival again Aug. 5.
Band leader Kurt Shobe said the four-member band formed in 2017 with performers from the region. One of the band members is Rollin Schmidt, who lives at Goessel.
“We’ve changed a few numbers over the years,” he said.
The band performs ’90s country, classic country, southern rock, and classic rock and roll, as well as its own creations. Shobe said audience engagement was part of the show.
The band will sell T-shirts and CDs of their first two albums, “Chasin’ the Sunset” and “Girl Like That.”
“One of the things I want to focus on is, we’re going to donate half of our sales to the museum,” Shobe said.
Shobe, who lives in Moundridge, said he loved the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum.
“There are things in the Heritage Museum that you do not see in those bigger museums,” he said. “They’ve done a great job of collecting things and telling the history of the area. There’s really nothing else that captures the area like that does.”
The band is working on its third album and expects to record it in October.
Museum director Fern Bartel said the 49th annual Threshing Days event would expand to three days, Aug. 5 through 7.
Besides the show’s array of historic farming equipment, some operating while on display, the museum has new exhibits to see.
“We have a collection of angels that we’re having for this summertime,” Bartel said. “Another new thing is we have is violins from Ferd Drazes, a Goessel barber, musician, and watch repairman.
Originally donated to Hillsboro’s museums, the violins were given to the Goessel museum when Hillsboro sorted through artifacts to make room.
The Hillsboro museum also donated a burr mill used to grind flour.
Aug. 5 schedule
11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. — lunch at the Wheat Hall.
Noon — gates officially open.
All afternoon — sawmill demonstrations, pedal tractor raffle tickets on sale.
2 to 4 p.m. — large engine start-up.
3 p.m. — threshing demonstrations.
3:30 p.m. — corn binding, shelling, cutting, and plowing demonstrations.
5 to 7 p.m. — supper at the Wheat Hall.
7:30 p.m. — Steel Skarecrow performance at Goessel High School auditorium. Admission by donations that will be given to the museum.
Aug. 6 schedule
6:30 to 9:30 a.m. — breakfast at the Wheat Hall.
All day — pedal tractor raffle tickets on sale.
9:30 a.m. — parade on Main St.
10:30 to 4 p.m. children’s activities at Uncle Milt’s Shed.
10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Low German meal at Goessel Elementary School.
11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. — field demonstrations.
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. — lunch at the Wheat Hall.
12:30 p.m. — prairie tractor start-up.
All afternoon — draft horse, sawmill, and blacksmith demonostrations.
2 p.m. — pedal tractor pull.
2 and 4 p.m. — large engines start-up.
4:30 to 7 p.m. — supper at the Wheat Hall.
Aug. 7 schedule
7 to 9 a.m. — breakfast at the Wheat Hall.
9:30 a.m. — worship service at the Wheat Hall.
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. — Sunday dinner at the Wheat Hall.
12:30 p.m. — prairie tractor and large engines start-up.
1 p.m. — blacksmith and sawmill demonstration.
1:30 p.m. — threshing demonstrations.
2 p.m. — field demonstrations and pedal tractor raffle drawing.