**Norris Olson, of Manilla, poses with the 1951 Minneapolis Moline Z tractor he restored. A long journey brought Norris to Manilla.** Photo by Gordon Wolf

Norris Olson was one of the people who brought a tractor to the Klondike Hotel Tractor Show in Manilla on Saturday. The yellow 1951 Minneapolis Moline Z that he restored stood out among red and green tractors.

The tractor reminds him of his youth on a farm near Waubay, located in the northeast corner of South Dakota. His dad owned a 1949 tractor of the same model and style, and Norris drove it from around age 10 until he graduated from high school in 1956.

Among all the residents of the community, Norris has to have traveled the most miles in a zig-zag route to make Manilla his home.

When he graduated high school, Norris was the right age for the draft, but he got a couple deferments because he was an auto mechanic.

Then his draft number came up No. 1, and he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army.

Norris spoke to the recruiter about going to a Nike Hercules missile maintenance course that was 42 weeks long, but that was full. The recruiter instead said he could have Norris stationed close to home, and he ended up in Treynor as a Nike Hercules missile system radar operator. That was in 1962. He served until 1965, got out of the military for a little while and then re-enlisted. Norris ended up in Treynor again.

After that, it was off to Alaska for 18 months. Before getting stationed in Alaska, Norris met Pat, and while he was in Alaska, they sent letters back and forth. When his duty in Alaska was over, Norris asked Pat to marry him. She said yes, and they spent their honeymoon at his next duty station, Ft. Bliss, Texas. The temperature was in the 100s, far from the climate Norris had become accustomed to in Alaska.

They stayed at Ft. Bliss for seven and one-half years. Then Norris was sent to Korea, where he served 13 months. Back from Korea, he was again stationed at Ft. Bliss where he stayed until he had 20 years in the service, and then retired.

By then Norris’s parents had passed away, but Pat’s parents were still living in Kirkman, so the couple decided to live someplace close by, and they chose Manilla.

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There’s more to the story about the Minneapolis Moline tractor, however. Norris was teaching auto mechanics to Denison-Schleswig High School students at the old armory 20-plus years ago. During that time, he went to an auction at Denison Livestock and saw the Minneapolis Moline tractor. It was in sad shape, but it reminded Norris of his days on the farm.

The price was right, so he bought it. Only he didn’t tell Pat about it. A couple weeks later, when Pat was going to the grocery store, Norris told her, “I might as well tell you. We own a tractor.”

Pat looked at the tractor and said, “What are you going to do with that?”

“Fix it up and have fun,” Norris responded.

And he did. He restored the tractor and was driving it by 2003 or 2004. Norris continued to drive it on weekend tractor drives until he ran into health problems.

Still, the tractor has special meaning to Norris as it reminds him of his days on the farm, and his long journey from a rural town in Northeast South Dakota to a rural town in West Central Iowa.

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