Old machines, new traditions fuel Rollag’s ‘Ladies of Steam’

In every corner of Minnesota, there are good stories waiting to be told of places that make our state great and people who in Walt Whitman's words "contribute a verse" each day. MPR News sent longtime reporter Dan Gunderson on a mission to capture those stories as part of a new series called “Wander & Wonder: Exploring Minnesota’s unexpected places.”

The hissing, huffing steam engines of yesteryear have fascinated Nicole Wallace as long as she can remember. Her grandparents took her to the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag when she was 11 months old.

As a toddler she was fascinated by miniature steam engines on display. Friends who built and operated the tiny engines nurtured her interest. As the years passed she moved on to engines the size of a small locomotive.

The 35-year-old has never missed the annual event.

“It’s the people. It really comes down to the people and the relationships and working hard, playing hard together,” said Wallace. “There’s just something about taking a step back into time and connecting with others that are passionate about keeping the history of steam alive.”

When Wallace recently married, her wedding included ... a steam engine and steam friends.

Wallace slowly maneuvers a steam powered tractor across the dusty reunion grounds where dozens of the machines belch steam and smoke. Ten feet tall and 20 feet long, this engine looks like a locomotive with large steel tractor wheels.

She has a hobby steam engineer’s license that’s required to operate the old boilers.

The principle of steam power is simple. Boil water to create steam. Steam under pressure powers a piston that turns wheels.

But operators also need to understand details of how the machines work to safely operate them.

“There’s something unique about steam power that I often like to relate to life,” said Wallace. “Steam power is very simply complex, and life is also that way. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

“The way I look at this old iron it’s like they’re a tool. They’re a tool to bring us together and keep that history alive,” she said.

Wallace owns a steam engine and is looking forward to the day she can bring it to the reunion.

“It’s in the restoration process, one of those things that takes a lot longer than you anticipate and a whole lot more money than you anticipate,” she said.

Many of the steam engines were built in the late 1800s when steam power was changing the face of agriculture by replacing horses as the primary power source.

The steam boilers are regularly tested for safety and operators must be licensed to run the machines.

In the heyday of steam, engine operators were mostly men, and today the hobby is still male dominated. But that’s changing, in part because of the work by Wallace and other women through the organization Ladies of Steam created nearly 10 years ago.

“How Ladies of Steam got started, we were having a slumber party with a couple of the ladies involved with the Rollag show, and we were like, ‘Why don’t we create a Facebook page where we can get connected’,” recalled Wallace.

In about a week the Facebook page had members from around the world, women excited about steam.

Every year at the Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, the Ladies of Steam teach a class on the basics of steam for interested women.

They explain how the engines work, and talk about practical considerations like sturdy work boots, never wearing synthetic fabrics that can melt from sparks and wearing leather gloves.

The machines are hot, noisy and dirty, but that did not deter 14-year-old Kaylee Magandy from Garrison, N.D., as she operated the controls on a steam engine for the first time. She climbed down from the operator’s platform with a big smile on her face, and said she “100 percent” wants to learn to operate a steam engine on her own.

“There’s just something about them that fascinates me,” she said.

“Isn’t is great how they make these things come back to life,” said Monica Fedora, a retiree from Frazee as she climbed down from an engine. “Bringing back the history is great.” 

Wallace loves to see the smiles that come as people get their first taste of steam power.

She is seeing more women pursue the license needed to operate steam engines

“Just having that confidence that they didn’t think that they could do something, and overcoming that fear,” she said. “That’s exciting.”

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