Among the earliest settlers in the Lynden area was a family farm homesteaded in 1883 by Hans Berthusen and Lida In 1944, the entire Berthusen homestead was given to the people of the city of Lynden. It is now a beautiful city park with walking trails, a camping area, historical buildings and markers, and some amazing vintage equipment from the early days of the farm.
We were fortunate to be able to attend the 50th Anniversary of the annual Vintage Farming Days festival this year at Berthusen park. It apparently was cancelled for a couple years, but the fair resumed this year, and we really enjoyed our day. It was at least a bit of a taste of a real fair, although we cant speak from our own small town fair experience: the Monroe and Puyallup fairs are not affairs. This fair felt because the crowds were bearable, the equipment on display was amazing, much of the entertainment was really tailored for kiddies, the people were very friendly, and many seemed to know each other, if only for a few minutes. Quite a refreshing experience.
people had told us this fair was worth our time. So we started following the directions we found, and were able to see an amazing amount of flat farmland while wondering if wed ever get there. (It takes a long time to outgrow our childish impatience, even when Im doing the driving.) Finally, we began seeing signs suggesting the parking was just ahead, and eventually arrived at the parking area: it looked like a small airstrip because it really was an airfield for aircraft hobbyists, just not in use at the time. We parked and wandered a bit before figuring out where to wait for the shuttle to the fair entrance. A few minutes later, what motoring up but a tractor pulling a cart with enough seating for a group of people. When we were all aboard, the tractor drove through the park, and even the drive was enjoyable as we rode through a sizeable, picturesque and very nice wooded campground. This really is a very nice park.
After paying the minimal entry fee (senior rates make life nice, dont they?) we wandered into the entry area to see the vintage farming days version of
a kiddies train ride. That little train drove all the way through and around the fairgrounds, because we saw it many times in many places as we wandered around.
Then we saw some of the main area of equipment on display. It was in a field about the size of a high school football field packed full of all kinds and sizes of obviously very old machines. As we wandered through one large shed, the machine we saw brought to my mind the engine room of the USS Hornet I saw as a ROTC midshipman on summer cruise. It was several cylinders of a massive steam engine.
One event each day of the fair was a parade of tractors, some of them massive, with wheels from steel, and taller than Tom. Some of the drivers took great pleasure in blowing their steam whistles, which definitely earned our attention.
One building was part of the sawmill where cedar shakes were made from the huge forests in the area. Now, much of that land is dairy farms and corn, potato, and berry fields. As a matter of fact, most of the raspberries grown in the United States
come from Whatcom county, with more than 85% of North Americas raspberries for the frozen berry market are produced within 15 miles of Lynden.
But there were also quite a few tiny little things, not much bigger than lawnmower engines, and several of those machines were running. I became a little frustrated at the variety of machines I couldnt quite figure out, and there was almost no information to describe them. There were a few people adjusting the machines, or discussing their operation with other interested people, all obviously and justifiably proud of their machines, but engrossed with the machines.
Then I noticed another group of little machines and a guy inside the ropes of those machines who seemed quite happy to talk about his equipment. He proved quite interesting and really enjoyed his hobby.
