This old Minneapolis Moline “huskor” was left here long before 1980 when Weston Bend became a state park. Prior to creating the park, much of the land was used for agricultural purposes. The corn picker seems strangely out of place here but when it was abandoned this trail was part of a road which led to a farmstead farther up the trail. Before mechanical corn pickers several men would follow a wagon down the rows of corn removing each ear of corn, shucking it by hand and finally throwing the ear into the wagon. The new single row pickers were a great advance in technology. They were much faster but they were also dangerous. No safety features meant a farmer could easily get caught in the machine causing injury or death. Modern combines are more efficient and much safer. Pickers were powered first by horses and later, like this one, by tractors. The picker was pulled down the corn row the stalks went into the intake where the ear was removed from the stalk and the husk from the ear. Finally the corn, still on the cob, went up the shoot and was blown into a wagon which followed behind. Fence rows and the side of the road were the grave yards for old farm machines. Frugal farmers reasoned they could be used later for parts or sold as scrap. Many of the old machines were used in scrap drives in WWII. The farmers might have been surprised to find that their old machines were transformed into airplanes and tanks. This corn picker, which has withstood the test of time, serves as a reminder of the rich agricultural history of the Weston area.
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