Pioneer 30-60 - Western Development Museum - Saskatoon, SK - Old Tractors on Waymarking.com

This Pioneer 30-60 was first bought for $4500 in 1916. With 30 HP at the drawbar, a weight of 23,000 pounds and 8 foot tall rear wheels, this tractor could handle an 8 to 10 bottom plow. It incorporated a horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engine of 1231 cubic inch displacement, with pistons cast in pairs and a 7X8 inch bore and stroke. The engine was designed with the top of the crankcase removable for easy access to the internals.

Unlike most of its contemporaries, the Pioneer included a 3 speed transmission, allowing speeds twice as great as its peers, enclosed drive gears riding in oil, a completely enclosed cab and a padded seat with back and armrest. These were, at the time, all pioneering features in the field of tractor manufacture.

The Pioneer Tractor Co. was incorporated in Minneapolis, MN in 1909, moved to Winona, MN in early 1910, and reincorporated as Pioneer Tractor Mfg. Co. In 1925 the company was again reincorporated as Pioneer Tractors Inc. and two years later, in 1927, it ceased operations.


An extensive article from the WDM:
The Pioneer Tractor Company of Winona, Minnesota was one of dozens of tractor companies that flourished for a few years, then disappeared from the scene altogether. Pioneer started building tractors in 1910 and by 1911, two models were offered for sale, the 15 and the 30. A year or so later, a larger version, the 45 hit the market, but only a few were made. A smaller version came out in the mid teens. The company lasted until about 1927, but their tractors did not change much over the years.

The 30 was a big tractor, weighing 23,000 pounds. The drive wheels were 96 inches in diameter. It could pull an eight to ten bottom plow through tough, prairie sod or power a 36 inch cylinder threshing machine making it ideal for custom work.

Pioneer, like its competitors, aimed its sights on the western market. A branch plant was apparently set up in Calgary and a sales and service outlet in Regina but little is known about this part of the business. Full page advertisements were placed in farm magazines like The Canadian Thresherman and Farmer and Gas Power Age. The March, 1912 issue of Gas Power Age extolled the virtues of the Pioneer. The ad stated “The Mighty Pioneer 30 having by years of unprecedented, successful results in the States conquered the American market, now invades the Canadian field,” a rather exaggerated claim since its first tractors debuted less than a year earlier. The ad goes on, “A great army of Pioneer Gas Tractors in continuous and successful operation, scattered throughout the Great West as far North as Saskatchewan and as far South as the Gulf of Mexico, bear testimony to the pre-eminence of our product.”

The Pioneer boasted “Six Exclusive Superiorities:”

“Our motor is absolutely vibrationless...
All gears, including the big drive gears, are entirely enclosed in dust-proof cases and run in oil-baths...
All working parts, including the motor, are entirely covered and protected from flying dirt...
We have three forward speeds, like an automobile...
The power is taken directly at the side of the motor fly-wheel between two long bearings and is transmitted to the drive wheels in a straight line...
An operator’s cab which can be entirely closed is provided away from the heat of the motor, with a comfortable upholstered seat, back and arm rest...the Pioneer is operated with the same ease and comfort as the automobile.”
The addition of an enclosed cab for the operator was new in the tractor business. It would be nearly 30 years before Minneapolis-Moline came out with a cab on its UDLX Comfortractor. The Pioneer also advertised a speed of six miles per hour, compared to two or three by other tractor builders.

Evidently, Pioneer found buyers in Saskatchewan. The company’s full-page advertisement in the June, 1912 edition of The Canadian Thresherman and Farmer included testimonials from five Saskatchewan farmers: Weitzen Land Company, Rosetown; R.J. Boyd, Regina; C.H. Hendrickson, Milestone; A.H. Chipman, Elbow; and Speltz Brothers of Brock. According to the ad, the Speltz Brothers “...find it cheaper to operate the Pioneer 30, the ultimate tractor.”

The Severson Brothers of Waldville, near Climax, Saskatchewan also bought a Pioneer for custom plowing and threshing, paying for it out of their first season’s profits. Henry Severson’s letter to Pioneer Tractor in Calgary was printed in an ad in a 1913 Grain Growers’ Guide. “We have all other kinds of machines in our neighbourhood but none have done as well as our Pioneer 30 and we heartily recommend it as we believe it the best machine on the market and know it to be a great money maker.”

Another Pioneer went to a Borden, Saskatchewan area farmer. He bought it at the Regina dealership for $4500 in 1916. According to information in Western Development Museum files, this tractor was then sold to William Rowse, a farmer in the Hanley district. A couple of years later, George Argue, also from the Hanley area, bought it and used it until about 1928. Argue worked for three years as a “trouble man” for Pioneer in Regina, but it is not known if this was before or after he bought the tractor. Argue’s Pioneer 30 then sat idle for years. In 1944, W.M. Conboy bought but never used it. Four years later, Conboy sold it to the Western Development Museum where it has remained to this day.

Engine Type: Internal Combustion Wheel Type: Steel Make: Pioneer Tractor Mfg. Co. Model: 30-60

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