Date in History: 1945
The 1945 Plowing Contest was held at the Hetts Farm on the west edge of Fort Atkinson on a fine Friday in October. At 10 a.m. the husking and plowing contests began with both senior and junior divisions being contested. The plowing was judged not by speed but by the quality and accuracy of the furrow and the skill in lifting and dropping the plow. Just after noon it was time to decide the city milking champion as competitors swooped down on the unsuspecting Hetts cows.
Competitors then took a break for a lunch of sauerkraut and wieners or salmon loaf prepared by the high school home ec. department, before turning their attention to the farm teams pulling title and the horse races. At the end of the day, everybody went home to get cleaned up for that evening’s Harvest Ball held at the Fort Atkinson Municipal Building.
This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 08/30/2004.