The first thing you notice is the sound. Not the hum of modern combines or the drone of diesel engines, but the rhythmic chuff of a steam tractor, the clatter of a threshing machine, and the shouts of men and women working together in the golden September sun. On a farm just west of Delmont, South Dakota, the past doesn't just sit in museums — it runs, it grinds, it bakes, and it dances.
That's the scene at the annual Harvest and Kuchen Festival, a two-day celebration held at the Twin Rivers Old Iron Association farm, a quarter-mile west of Delmont at 40084 284th St. This year, on September 12 and 13, 2026, the festival takes on special significance as it joins the nation in celebrating America's 250 years of history, resilience, and progress. But for the members of the Twin Rivers Old Iron Association (TROIA) and the Delmont Historical Society, the event is about something more personal: keeping the knowledge of how their fathers and grandfathers farmed — and how their mothers and grandmothers baked — alive for the next generation.
The festival is actually a marriage of two traditions. The Kuchen Festival, run by the Delmont Historical Society, was originally developed to provide entertainment and local foods for pheasant hunters who flocked to the area each October. Kuchen — the German word for cake — is a beloved regional specialty made with bread dough, homemade custard, and often fruit, shaped and baked like a pie. The festival's kuchen sales have become legendary, with a refrigerated semi dedicated to keeping the pastries cold throughout the day. "We usually have the cheapest soft serve ice cream around," says Dan Fechner, a second-generation TROIA member, with a grin.
The Harvest Festival, meanwhile, grew out of a different kind of hunger — a hunger to see old machinery work again. Mike Fechner, one of TROIA's founding members, recalls that it all started with a corn-shelling event uptown in Delmont. "That gathered a crowd for a couple of years, and it caught my attention," he says. Prior to that, his uncle had involved him in restoring his grandfather's 1930 Twin City tractor, sparking a lifelong passion.
Around the same time, TROIA board member Glennis Stern and his family had begun hosting private threshing events in the late 1990s. "I went out and bought an old threshing machine and binder and harvested about six acres of oats," Stern remembers. "The weather was beautiful that year, and everybody thought it was great. The next year, we threshed again. Before we were done that year, people started walking away, commenting about how much work it was." Though the Stern family's event was exhausting, it planted a seed. When a neighbor asked for a threshing event of his own, Stern and his family obliged — and that's when TROIA began to take shape. "A lot of the association members showed up with some of their vintage equipment, and the show started growing from there," Stern says.
Since its formal organization in 2003, TROIA has grown into a tight-knit group of collectors and history buffs, including Mike and Lila Fechner, George and Diane Sandhoff, Dan Kurtenbach, Bryan Neugebauer, Brian Weisser, Jim Grosz, and Dale Bitterman. Each member brings their own collection of vintage equipment, much of it passed down through families. George Sandhoff, who worked for a John Deere dealer for years, puts it simply: "It's intriguing to think about how our fathers and grandfathers started farming with horses. All of us have an interest in keeping knowledge of this history going."
The festival grounds themselves are a testament to that dedication. The farm site, which has hosted the show since its inception, features a barn, house, machine shed, and several outbuildings that members have renovated and upgraded over the years. The remodeled house now holds a rotating display of vintage items — one year military regalia, another year wedding dresses, another year vintage dishes — organized by Jeanie Grosz and Laura Weiss. "Every year it's a different historic display," Lila Fechner says.
Some of the buildings have been moved to the site from miles away, often with creative engineering. The Weber schoolhouse, the town's first schoolhouse, was transported using a stack mover and now serves as the festival's kitchen. "We get a lot of good feedback about our food," Stern says. Another schoolhouse, originally located along Highway 18 between Delmont and Tripp, was acquired from the Parkston Historical Society in 2018, but moving it proved a saga of wet weather and COVID-19 delays. "It was probably three or four years till we finally got it moved," Stern says. "It's been quite a hit at the show."
The club also built a new old-fashioned blacksmith shop, complete with a line shaft and forge, salvaged from a show in Newcastle, Nebraska. "The building was always a big crowd-pleaser at that show," Neugebauer says. "It's hard to imagine now that threshing crews traveled around the region, cooking and sleeping in this 'shack.'" A Nebraska thresherman's cook shack was also acquired and is being renovated for the grounds.
During the festival, visitors can watch demonstrations of threshing, corn shelling, lumber milling, and blacksmithing, all powered by vintage tractors, steam engines, and stationary gas engines. TROIA members raise their own corn and oats on the farm, ensuring the demonstrations are authentic. Oats are placed into traditional shocks, loaded onto hay racks, and run through two threshing machines. "Our main goal is to educate people what it was like to harvest back in the day," Dan Fechner says. "It's just to show people how it actually worked back in the early days," adds Gary Houska, a Mitchell resident and TROIA member who demonstrates a governor handcrank from an early-1900s steam engine.
The 2026 festival features a special focus on Massey-Harris, Massey-Ferguson, and their lineage, marking the 1938 invention of the world's first self-propelled combine harvester. But all makes of equipment are welcome, and the parade on both days showcases everything from pristine restorations to working machines still bearing the scars of decades of use.
Admission is free, a deliberate choice that has made the festival a regional draw. "Twin Rivers really benefited from COVID-19, when other threshing shows were canceling events," Stern says. "People still wanted to go to threshing shows. The fact that we've always had free admission was also a big draw at that time." The strategy has paid off. In 2024, the guest register recorded visitors from two different countries and between 11 and 13 different states. "We had one guy come from Sturgis with his tractors because there were no other shows in his area," Mike Fechner says.
The festival is also working to engage younger generations. TROIA invites fifth- and sixth-grade classes from area schools to tour the grounds a few days before the show. "These kids and their teachers have greatly enjoyed the tours, and we know that many of the students come back to the show with their parents because they enjoyed it so much," Stern says. The Fechners' granddaughter has even started competing in tractor pulls. "For the last two years, she's entered tractor pulls," Mike Fechner says. "At an exhibition last year, she beat me fair and square, by two inches. Her interest motivates me to stay involved."
Beyond the machinery, the festival is a feast for the senses. Kuchen sales start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, chislic — a South Dakota favorite of cubed, seasoned meat — at 11 a.m., and food trucks and microbrewers line the grounds. Saturday's schedule includes a kids pedal pull, a pork barbecue supper, and a street dance featuring Surfin' Safari. Sunday brings a pancake and sausage breakfast, a non-denominational church service, and an antique tractor pull. "Hundreds of pounds of meat adds up in a hurry," Dan Fechner notes, explaining why concessions aren't free even though admission is.
As the sun sets on the festival, the steam engines cool, the threshing machines fall silent, and the last slices of kuchen disappear. But the stories, the skills, and the sense of community endure. For the members of TROIA and the Delmont Historical Society, the Harvest and Kuchen Festival is more than an event — it's a living link to a past that shaped the present, and a gift to the future. As George Sandhoff says, "All of us have an interest in keeping knowledge of this history going." And on a farm west of Delmont, that history keeps going, one threshing, one tractor pull, and one slice of kuchen at a time.