“The New John Deere”

I believe this is Alta Walter May’s husband Wallace with her brother Andy Walter showing off a new John Deere tractor at the farm in Klondike (Sherman County) Oregon in March of 1942.  This was probably one of the last tractors to make it out of the factory before many of the lines switched to wartime production. While John Deere continued to make some farm tractors during the war, they switched much of their production to military tractors, armored trailers, tank parts and ammunition.  And no, their tanks were not green and yellow.  You can read more about their wartime efforts here.

Sherman County’s wheat farms probably qualified for priority fuel rations, so this tractor likely kept moving throughout the war.

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