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Glacier Heritage Power & Equipment Club is proud to be celebrating its 23rd anniversary of participation in the Comox Valley Exhibition since its founding on the exhibition grounds in 1991.
The Glacier Heritage Power & Equipment Club’s objective has been to preserve and restore antique equipment, and to promote our equipment through exhibitions and demonstrations that show the pioneer way of living.
Demonstrations and displays have included grain threshing, grain grinding, tractor parades, many types of engines, old tools, an old fashioned home, a garage, and a blacksmith shop.
Our engine demonstrations and displays include flywheel engines that were once used for power before the days of electricity. They generated power for cream separators, water pumps and created general power for machine shop work. Other engine demos and displays include marine engines, antique outboards, old trucks, and a wide assortment of antique tractors.
Over the past 20 years, our club has also participated in Heritage Days at the Comox Mall, and has displayed equipment at the Campbell River and Courtenay Museums.
We have participated in the Cumberland Parade and the Canada Day Parade in Campbell River and Courtenay. We also attend the Black Creek Community Annual Fall Fair.
Our dedicated members spend countless hours before and during the Comox Valley Exhibition to put on one of the best antique shows on the island.
At the Comox Valley Exhibition, we host grain-threshing demonstrations twice a day for each day of the fair. Two separators are powered by antique tractors. Threshing the oats separates the grain from the straw. An antique baler bales the straw that is then sold for cattle bedding, etc.
Grain grinding is another demonstration held daily. The resulting freshly ground whole grain flour is a popular item to buy at the fair. The activities of a pioneer family include demonstrations of early washing machines and butter churning. Antique tractor parades are a big crowd pleaser and are held during the afternoons.
The Glacier Heritage Power & Equipment Club offers free hay wagon rides, to shuttle fairgoers throughout the entire fairgrounds. The rides operate a half day Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. Wagon rides are very popular and are constantly in demand for the three-day event.
Anyone interested in antique machinery and preserving the past is welcome to join. Interest can be of any type – farm machinery, tractors, bulldozers, marine engines, lawn mowers – anything with internal or external combustion.
See us at the Comox Valley Exhibition on Headquarters Rd. in Courtenay. The fair runs Aug. 22-24.