Tom Pfieffer could only look at the picture of a rusty 1929 Caterpillar Thirty sitting in a field in Garland, Texas, and dream of owning it.
A friend had spotted it sitting there with some other vintage equipment and left a note tacked to the owner’s house letting him know that Pfieffer was interested in buying it. The friend later left another note and eventually got an answer.
“No,” the owner said.
He and his son had recently restored it for operating in a parade and weren’t interested in parting with it.
Pfieffer kept the photo of the Thirty on his computer. It was rare to find one in Texas, which was John Deere tractor farm-country, while the old Cats were more popular in California and the Midwest.
Two years later, though, Pfieffer would get his Thirty.
