OWLS HEAD, Maine — Sitting in a yellow backhoe Sunday morning, Walker Hedrich looked right at home.
The 3-year-old, who attended Owls Head Transportation Museum’s Earth Movers and Shakers event Sunday, said his favorite part of the backhoe was the “funny handles” that steer the machine.
“And I like the giant thing,” the toddler said, looking up at a 25-foot-tall backhoe next to his machine. “How do I get up there?”
The 3-year-old’s love of heavy equipment started when his day care had some work done awhile back.
“His child care was doing construction, and every day he would want to go up to it and stand next to the machines,” said his mother, Janna Hedrich of South Thomaston.
Walker was one of dozens of children bouncing around the heavy equipment and crashing toy cars into each other Sunday.
“The children love to sit in these big pieces of machinery — boys, girls, whatever,” said museum director Charles Chiarchiaro. “It’s a children’s event, but for all ages.”
Plows, graders, backhoes, firetrucks, bucket trucks and a log hauler filled up the museum’s outdoor display area. Many of the vehicles were shown by local owners.
“They are not out here to sell anything. It is to stimulate the imagination of people of all ages. It’s to pay tribute to the machines that let us plow and transport,” Chiarchiaro said. “Maine people, they have always appreciated machinery because they have seen it overcome adversary.”
The show offered lectures and demonstrations, including rides in a 1914 steam-powered Lombard Log Hauler. The 15-ton truck, driven by Ron Ginger of Boothbay, chugged around a field at the museum.
“It has a lot of slop in it,” Ginger said.
Former construction worker Howie Youngquist, who was in the area on vacation, said the show brought back fond memories.
“I used to fool with this kind of stuff. I was always intrigued by that type of equipment,” he said.
Also at the show were free Model T rides and an airplane show.
“My father, his first car was a Model T — he walked 18 miles to buy it,” Youngquist said, standing beside a yellow tractor. “I get a kick out of this stuff.”