SUBLETTE – Whether rain, sleet, snow, or sun, the 43^rd Annual Sublette Antique Tractor & Toy Show will take over the streets of the Village of Sublette from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, March 15-16.

Anthony Morgan, the first-year president of the show’s board of directors, anticipates a similar event to those of the past.

However, his fingers are crossed for the best possible weather.

“Last year was chilly, but there were thousands of people in and out of the buildings,” said Morgan, who may be a new president but has been on the board since 2020. “Talking to the vendors, they said they did pretty well even though there wasn’t a lot of people on the streets. They were in the buildings patronizing the vendors.

“Being the show is in March, you never know what the weather is going to bring. It could rain. It could be sunny. There has been snow before and we had to clean up the roads before the show. It could be windy. It could be a nice day.

“You never know what you’re going to get.”

As usual, there will be local vendors and there will be vendors from the surrounding area and surrounding states.

Toys will be presented in five different buildings (Sublette Community Building, Ellice Dinges Center, Main Street Repair, Jacoby Building, and the Sublette Elevator) antique tractors will be outdoors as well as a semi-tractor display, and there will be a train display set up by Ethan Orzech at Orzech Auto Truck & Tow LLC, located at 301 N. Richmond St. in Sublette.

“There are people who have new stuff and a lot of the other vendors have the old, vintage models,” Morgan said. “We have some who make grain bin setups and can make you whatever you want while you’re at the show. There are a lot of different displays.

“There are craft vendors, too, where people will have operator manuals and books, and those kinds of things.”

This year, there are two featured tractor companies in the Oliver Farm Equipment Company (1929-1960) and Minneapolis-Moline (1929-1963).

Both companies were created separately by the same process, mergers of other companies as Oliver was constructed of four companies and Minneapolis-Moline was founded with three companies coming together.

Oliver and Minneapolis-Moline were both purchased by the White Motor Corporation in the 1960s.

“They don’t make either tractor anymore. I’ve worked on both of them before. We have different companies on a rotation, and it was their turn,” said Morgan, who grew up around International Harvester tractors but isn’t partial to any specific brand. “We put Oliver and Minneapolis-Moline together because both companies were formed around the same time, and then were bought by the same company.

“We have so many different manufactures and companies people collect, so every year we try to represent a different one. We move down the line and then recirculate them. People collect the tractors that their grandparents and parents farmed with, so it’s sentimental.”

The Sublette Antique Tractor & Toy Show will provide a free shuttle service to each of the buildings and there will be a Pedal Pull for kids.

Food will be offered through the entire show with two 4-H stands ran by the Sublette Indians and the Maytown Comets (Sublette Community Building and the Sublette Elevator), while the Firemen’s Pancake Breakfast will be hosted by the Volunteer Fire Department from 7 a.m.-noon on Sunday.