1957 Minneapolis Moline

“The story behind the tractor: it is a 1957 Minneapolis Moline 445 it was purchased jointly by my father and grandfather in 1988 (I was 2 years old) from a used equipment dealer in St. Cloud Minnesota. Not much was known about its former life however when I did the restoration I found that the seat had been replaced with a John Deere seat and the top gauge panel cover was heavily bonded together which lead us to believe that a large tree branch fell on it at some point in its previous life. From 1988 forward it spent its life as a work horse for the Determan family grading our ¼ mile drive way in the Summer and moving snow in the Winter along with many other jobs until the late 1990’s when water got in to the exhaust and froze up the #2 cylinder and that is how it sat for years until March of 2015 when I decided to restore it. I dedicated it to my Grandfather Walter and it has jump started a great hobby that my entire family is getting involved in and it’s bringing us closer together.”

Ed Determan