The Farm Toy Museum, located amongst the scenic bluffs and countryside of eastern Iowa, has been home to over 30,000 farm toys and collectibles since 1986. The idea of a farm toy museum came from the growing awareness of the farm toy hobby through passionate and enthusiastic collectors, and the demand for additional space to house the National Farm Toy Show. Taking note of these two elements Dave Bell, then of the ERTL Company, and Claire Scheibe, founder and past president of the Toy Farmer Ltd. met with the Dyersville Industries, Inc. (DII) Board of Directors to propose the National Farm Toy Museum.
As was expected, the DII Board did not immediately accept the idea of building a museum. One major concern of the Directors focused on was the expense to construct the facility. To help defray the costs a fund raising campaign was put together that included introducing and selling a series of collector tractors. The first series was a line of vintage Cockshutt tractors. The series consisted of a three-tractor set that was produced from 1986 thru 1990. Those who purchased the first set are acknowledged on the Founding Collectors board located in the entrance of the museum.
The result of the fund raising campaign and the sales of the Cockshutt series tractor sales was the National Farm Toy Museum. In November of 1986, the museum was partially finished so that it could be used as additional space for the National Farm Toy Show.
Every year the National Farm Toy Museum selects an exclusive collector's series tractor to produce for the benefit of the Museum. For more information on the collector series of tractors please contact the National Farm Toy Museum.
