Step Back in Time at Tuckahoe Steam & Gas

BY OLIVER WHITE

I’ve driven past the place a thousand times, and I’ll bet you have, too.

On U.S. Rt. 50, about five miles north of Easton, Maryland, there’s a sign on the right at the entrance to what appears at a passing glance to be a perfectly splendid picnic grove, but with barns and bleachers off in the distance. The sign at the gate reads, “Tuckahoe Steam & Gas Association.”

When I took on the assignment of writing about Talbot County’s agricultural heritage, I thought I might find some inspiration there. But when I arranged for a tour, I was floored by what I found.

Patricia Harvey met me at the gate one Sunday afternoon this spring.

Harvey is one of the chief volunteers among a corps of 250 locals devoted to collecting, restoring, displaying and operating a wide variety of vintage industrial machinery and agricultural equipment. They have everything from antique steam-powered tractors to a fire-engine red 1912 Ames Iron Works Steam Engine from Oswego, New York, used to operate multiple machines in an old machine shop.

Steam engines played a huge role in the improvement of both industry and agriculture. Before the development of large internal-combustion engines and steam turbines, reciprocating steam engines powered electrical generators, cable car systems, line shafts to run factories, ships, and just about everything else. Traction engines replaced horses as the power source for much of the labor required for farming.

The association’s volunteers collect and restore these historic engines, machinery and tools. It’s astonishing to think that all of the hundreds of intricate contraptions of iron and steel have all been brought back to their original condition, an achievement that must have taken countless hours of labor, gallons of elbow grease and vast stores of expertise.

“We’re trying to preserve our rural heritage,” Harvey explained. “And not just agricultural heritage, but our way of life. We focus on the machines that revolutionized the farming industry as well as all the supporting industries like canning and transportation.”

The nonprofit organization celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023 and Harvey has been involved since day one. Her father was one of the 79 charter members, and early on, Harvey was put to work organizing volunteers and events. She was eager to show me around the grounds of the association’s sprawling 70-acre campus.

“Our Rural Life Museum is dedicated to preserving the ‘living’ side of the culture,” she said, unlocking the door to a large exhibit hall. Just inside, there’s a replica of an early 1900s general store, authentic down to the collection of tomato cans from local packing plants.

Most of the items have been donated by members and others who are interested in the preservation of their links to the past, she noted. The museum features a typical Eastern Shore farmhouse kitchen furnished with items from the period 1900 to the 1930s. The museum also features displays of hand tools used by farmers and craftsmen, along with memorabilia from the time that steamships were a primary mode of transportation on the Eastern Shore.

Elsewhere on the campus, there’s a blacksmith shop, a steam-powered sawmill and extensive exhibit halls devoted to—and packed with—stationary steam engines and engines powered by oil and gas. A working machine shop with every imaginable mechanism for shaping, grinding, drilling and forging metal provides the necessary tools for volunteer craftsmen to keep the other pieces of equipment operational.

Harvey walked me past open sheds crammed with scores of antique steampowered tractors and other farm machinery, each of which has been painstakingly restored to working order by volunteers. They haul them out for display to the public at their annual show the weekend after July 4. This year’s Steam Show will be held July 6–9. The museum buildings are open the first Saturday, July through November. The East Coast Modified Truck and Tractor Pull takes place on July 19. The Fall Harvest Festival is slated for October 28–29.

Tuckahoe Steam & Gas Association is located on U.S. Route 50 between mileposts 58 and 59 at 11472 Ocean Gateway. For more information, visit: tuckahoesteam.org.