Linden Kimball Wood ~ Index

I think it high time that L.K. Wood receives the recognition he so rightly deserves. Linden Kimball Wood was a true American Genius, and an early farming practices prodigy. With little more than scraps at hand, he cast, carved, molded, shaped, bent and painted life into both one-half scale and full size threshing equipment.

His expertise spanned the golden fifty years of threshing in Cache Valley, 1870 to 1920. He single handedly saved and restored Cache Valleys oldest Steam Tractor, "Old Betsy." He fashioned models in half and one-ninth scale— that would steam and thresh grain! Read that again… They would both make steam and thresh grains.

With a small forge, a simple lathe and a old drill press along with hundred upon hundreds of his man hours, he fabricated from home made castings, the gears, levers, wheels and anything else needed to create and or repair threshing equipment. Oh, how he loved that little Russell ten-horse power steamer he first saw come into Mendon, Utah as a boy.

That it exists still is a tribute to him and his insight into what has for the most part become a lost art. We need to honor him and the things he did— created with his own two hands. What a sad chapter of our history to lose, thank you L.K. Wood for saving this small tradition of our fathers, for us to enjoy and marvel over today. I think you the smartest single man I will ever know…

The Mendon Threshing Bee

Linden Kimble Wood was born, lived and died right here in Mendon, Utah. No one in town ever called him Linden Kimball, except perhaps his mother, everyone simply referred to him as L.K. or L.K. Wood. Many folks never even knew what those two initials stood for. But what can I say about him that has not been told and retold by so many before? If you know anything about threshing, you know that L.K. Wood and steam powered threshing are one and the same. He is one of the most remarkable men that Mendon has ever produced.

He loved steam and steam engines. He had the skill and knowledge to build scale models of them as in this photograph of him above. Not only were they accurate scale models, but also they would and could, fire and make steam. Even the little tiny ones… I remember as a child a working model that was housed and displayed in the Utah State Capitol building, on a thick glass shelf. It was about a foot in length or so; I think another one went back east, perhaps to the Smithsonian for display as well. They were in their time and still are a major marvel today; he was a marvel of a man as well. The L.K. Wood Threshing Bee was bigger than Mendon's May Day, during the time that he put on the major demonstration of steam threshing power. L.K. Wood simply was and is, Mendon's own true original genius.

I was perhaps six or seven years old, when I first got to go and ride around  in the side coal bucket of one of his steam engines, driven by my older cousin, Glena Buist Markey. I would be "dropped" into this right or left hand coal bucket that was part of the steam engine, but with low enough sides, so that I could still see over… and I got to tool about in L.K. Wood's back yard, the home of the, L.K. Wood Threshing Bee. He had horse threshing as well on display, they would start off the morning with a miniature, horse powered device he had built, that was in turn connected to a separator or thresher. Four or more teams would go round and round as in days of old and a jackshaft would transfer this true horsepower, to a restored thresher. Later in the day, around noon, they would sometimes go out and bind up some wheat, this is a machine pulled by work horses that would cut and gather the grain crop into bundles, complete with a little string knot to complete the assembly of "binding." From there they would toss the bundles onto a wagon and move this when full, up to the separator or thresher. Here a huge, full sized, restored steam engine would belt itself to the thresher, by means of a long canvas belt, held together with big iron staples. This belt always had a "flip or twist" in the middle, so as to run on one side of the belt on the thresher and the other on the steam engine. This simple twist of the belt also kept the belt in place once the two machines were aligned and true. The steam engine was then blocked into place and with a double toot of the shrill whistle; the large drive wheel was slowly engaged. This transfer of power would start the thresher cylinder, fans, straw walkers, sifters and shakers into a whirl of heavenly motion.

What a racket all of this would make… but no one cared, least of all I, for the magic of this symphony of moving mechanical parts, fans, puffs of black smoke and spits of hot steam, as the first bundles of grain from the wagon were pitched on to the lead conveyor and made their way to the claws of the spinning cylinder, this resistance would in turn make the driving power, of the steam engine lug for a moment as the engineer would throttle up the required power, to overcome the resistance of the wheat shafts, in their tight bundles. Black smoke would yield to a gray transparent hiss as the two machines became one. A nod of the head by one of the two or more men assigned to pitch the grain into the thresher with a bundle-fork in hand, would in turn bring a frenzy of activity as the steam engine engineer, brought the "RPM" of the drive wheel to that required by the thresher load. The next thing you knew there was grain pouring out of an elevator and into a gunnysack. One man would hold them up to this "spout"  to be filled and another would sew or tie up the full sack. At near the same time, the rear of the thresher would spring to life, blowing out the spent straw shaft and beards, hulls and other waste from the separator operation. A huge straw stack would be created behind the machine, a place sure to draw the kids… who would then scratch and itch for the rest of the day. What fun was this! Every child in Mendon, dreams came true. Steam, smoke and action from 10:30 in the morning until 6:00 p.m. one Saturday each fall come August.

I suppose in between setups, they would have other demonstrations, such as the most powerful and modern tractor in all of the Mendon, Utah area vs. of one L.K. Woods's spare steam engines— they always lost. I figure that the weight of the steam engine alone most likely could stall the rubbered tired, fuel powered farm tractors. I do not think in the whole time of the threshing bee, that they did this tug-of-war, that L.K. Wood lost. He had a steam-powered calliope that they would play as well. He used to drive this steam powered musical organ up and down the streets of Mendon, in days past, to wake up the town of Mendon for important events, at times even for May Day. L.K. Wood was a master machinist, his shop buildings were open to all to view projects he might be building or repairs for a new steam engine to debut at next years Threshing Bee. It seems that he had at least three "real steam" engines and a bunch of scale models that were being driven round and about. His working scale threshers and steam power were something that I, nor many others, will ever forget. Plus he was just such a nice man.

L.K. Wood liked to take his little Ol' Betsy up to the top of the road at Cold Water, above Mendon. Just for the fun of it. He often would call one friend or another and ask if they would like to take a ride to Cold Water with him. This is something for sure we will never see again…

Rodney J. Sorensen