Outside, the museum has gathered together a collection of historic buildings, including the 1906 Brisco log schoolhouse and the original Windermere Lake CPR Depot, also built of logs. Further on are several buildings and cabins, to our knowledge all original, from the Windermere Valley area. Outside is also a small collection of vintage machinery, mostly from farms around the area.
In the collection is this hay tedder. Tedders were used to turn or disperse hay to dry it prior to the grunt work of picking it up with pitch forks and loading onto a hay wagon, then again pitching it off the wagon onto the hay stack. Invented in the mid nineteenth century, several manufacturers made tedders, each with their own idea of how it should be designed. Some, like this one, had compound cranks creating a motion on the forks described as "the energetic scratching of a hen." On a casting is a possible logo with an "M" inside a square. One possibility that comes to mind is
Minneapolis Moline, formed in 1929 by the merger of Moline Implement Company, Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, and Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company. A good possibility would be the Moline Implement Company, initially formed in 1870 as Moline Plow, makers of various farm implements. Another, possibly more likely candidate, is
Massey Harris, a Canadian Company founded in 1847 by Daniel Massey.
This example, unlike others we've encountered, looks to be complete and operational. Though they look and operate a whole lot differently, hay tedders are still made and used today.