Potato digger - Eureka, MT
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 48° 54.356 W 115° 04.982
11U E 640472 N 5418769
This potato digger is not the only one that one will find on the north side of Highway 37, 1.2 miles west of the Highway 93 junction just north of Eureka Montana
Waymark Code: WMM034
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 06/25/2014
Views: 3
Someone had managed to gather together about 60 farm implements and wagons and has decided to put them on display. The vast majority of the farm implements are very old horse drawn machines. The collection includes plows, cultivators, harrows, discs, mowers, corn planters, farm wagons, potato diggers and planters, a hay loader, a manure spreader and two road graders. The display is immediately north of the highway and appears to be accessible 24/7/365, at no charge.
This is another of those machines that farmers, in this case potato farmers, were undoubtedly overjoyed to see come to market. This machine was able to dig potatoes by sliding a large knife under the potatoes in the ground, then elevating potatoes and dirt up a chain link belt, through which the dirt, but not the potatoes, fell. After the dirt had fallen out, the potatoes were simply dumped back on top of the ground, ready to be picked up. It was a very clever and very successful piece of machinery. This model is slightly more advanced than basic models, having a collector box on the side into which the potatoes fell, instead of going straight back onto the ground.
The last one of these we saw was made by the Dowden Manufacturing Company of Prairie City, Iowa and was patented in 1885. Couldn't find a name on this one, but the basic design is the same save for the collector box and the addition of a second pair of wheels in front.
