Scott Vouk was 6 years old in 2001 when the Holt Caterpillar 10-Ton tractor was auctioned off.
It was sold along with all the other equipment at the Vouk family’s antique steam show after his great uncle passed away.
Now at age 25, Scott has managed what many of his relatives didn’t believe possible – bringing the century-old tractor home.
“I've been after Dad for quite a while to try and get this machine back,” he says.
The Holt was purchased in 1938 by Scott’s great uncle William Vouk Sr. for the family threshing and sawmill business that Scott's great-grandfather ran until he died in 1931. The early-1920s model tractor had already seen about 15 years of hard work before that. A construction company used it for plowing snow off roads in the St. Stephen, Minnesota, area where the Vouk family put down roots over 100 years ago.
The Holt replaced a Case 80-horsepower steam engine the family business had used since 1917. Scott Vouk’s grandfather John Vouk overhauled the gasoline engine on the Holt and put a custom canopy on it.
His great uncle threshed from farm-to-farm with the 10-Ton until the late 1940s. He continued using it for sawing lumber into the mid-1950s. A belt was stretched between the Holt’s pulley and the sawmill to power the sawmill plate.
