Combine City Is the Fitting Tribute to Ghosts of Farm Equipment Past

I'll admit, I've done quite a bit of driving around here in the golden spread... not too long ago I shared a visit to the Bug Ranch in Conway and I even made my way out to the leaning tower of Texas which isn't in any hurry to fall BTW:

I've started to sense a theme here.... People here in the panhandle like their art to lean in some way. Maybe it's to match what few windswept trees we have, Perhaps it's a nod to Stanley Marsh 3 or maybe it's something else that just seems... right.

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Well... sure enough there are plenty more leaning vehicles here in the Golden Spread and if you happen to be heading down the Claude Highway you might just miss combine city if you aren't paying attention.

Combine City is the brain child of Orville Ladehoff. Wait his wife actually. The story goes, Orville didn't know what to do when his combine got to a point it was no longer useable. His wife jokingly suggested that he just go out and bury the thing.

Naturally, and for us married folk, we know that when the significant other makes a suggestion... well... you do it. For Orville the idea wasn't so much to bury them but to "Plant" them in a field like a prize crop and before you know it, Combine City was born

Today, You'll find the "Cadillac" of farm equipment buried noses in, blades up for the rest of time. and honestly like the eccentric millionaire and his caddies down the road Ladehoff just couldn't part with his machines either.

No Painting Allowed

Combine City is a little different from the other vehicle ranches here in the area in that it's completely fenced off with barbed wire that frankly I wouldn't want to test. Each of the machines with their shades of John Deere green, Koyoti orange, Case red and others are slowly fading into the golden spread they once worked. There is something different about this that works out.

Need more color in your life? May I suggest some of the murals around town: