Who Are We?

A group of friends who pulled in McMinnville, Tennessee started to wonder if anyone would be interested in antique tractor pulling in Eagleville, Tennessee. This is how the Tennessee Valley Pioneer Power Association got started thirty years ago.

​The first meeting was help in January of 1988 and the idea seemed to be a popular one. At the second meeting, on February 20, 1988, the first set of seven board members was elected. Finally, on March 19, 1988, the club was officially given the name of the Tennessee Valley Pioneer Power Association. When you ask then President, Buddy Woodson, how the name came to be, he will tell you that they aren’t sure. All they knew at the time was that they wanted Pioneer and Tennessee to be included, and the name just sort of stuck. Woodson, who was the club president for twenty-two years, has seen the club grow and change a lot since those first original meetings.

Another member, who has seen how much change the club has gone through, is Richard Kieffer. He recalls a friend calling him in 1988 to tell him he should buy an antique tractor and join this tractor club in Eagleville. Richard, along with his sons Dwayne and Chris, set out to find a tractor. Dwayne knew of an old tractor sitting and they went to look at it and ended up taking it home. In three and a half weeks the Kieffer’s had been through the tractor and rebuilt it front to back and painted it, just in time for the first tractor show.

​That first year, approximately 138 antique tractors were exhibited at the show, along with approximately 100 gas engines. By the fifth year of the show, it was said to be the “Largest Antique Tractor Exhibition In The South,” and by year six it was claimed to be drawing 400 tractors to the show. As the years went by, the club and the show grew and the members knew that Eagleville School, where they had always hosted the show, just didn’t have the capacity to continue to be the location for the show.

​To accommodate all of these tractors that come each year, the club purchased the thirty-five acres that the club calls home now, in December of 1999. They spent time cleaning up those acres, and the 16th annual show was held at the new show grounds in 2003. Over time, the show went from being just a one-day show, to being two days, and then three days. The show currently is a two-day show, and is held the weekend after Labor Day each year.

​The show, while ever evolving, is definitely a family affair. There are all brands of tractors to see, games such as Skillet Toss for the ladies, Slow Tractor Races and demonstrations on the sawmill, which is run by a steam engine. There has also been the addition of Kids Hill over the years, where kids can play and have pedal tractor pulls with their very own sled to fit with the pedal tractors.

​The members of the Tennessee Valley Pioneer Power Association all hope that the show will continue to prosper and grow for at least another thirty years. The members would also like to thank everyone for coming out year after year and making this show the success that it is. Our exhibitors truly make this show what it is, and we believe that we have the best exhibitors out there.