WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum opened Tuesday in Waterloo, offering a glimpse at how the company has become ingrained in the community.
The partnership between city of Waterloo, home of John Deere’s largest manufacturing complex, and the company is a theme of the museum. It features stories about key individuals who guided John Deere during its early years while also displaying company products and memorabilia, such as vintage tractors, blueprints of the complex and manuals.
“It’s fun to walk Waterloo folks through here, because they come in thinking they know John Deere and their city, and they walk out with a new perspective,” one of the museum’s curators, Joshua Waddle, said.
Some might not know that the manufacturer’s arrival caused concern among many Waterloo residents in 1918, he told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (https://bit.ly/1rSvwkQ ). That’s because another company, Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Co., had employed about 1,000 of the city’s 35,000 residents.
“They really fashioned themselves as being Chicago, an industrial city in the middle of the Heartland,” he said. “Many of them were worried about what might happen, that they might lose their jobs with the change.”
One room in the museum is dedicated to John Deere vendors, such as Pulaski, Indiana-based J.P. Pulaski Co., which has been selling the company’s products for 120 years. Visitors also can learn about Henry Dreyfuss, who designed some of the tractors.
Brand standards manager Chris Boyens has been involved with the museum project since 2007 and said visitors will find the work that went into it was worth it.
“They might be expecting a display floor, but in reality, they’re getting a museum,” he said.
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Information from: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, https://www.wcfcourier.com
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