Tractor Town – Mosaic Tractor

The Tractor Town project was created by artist and teacher Kelley Quinn to bring focus and awareness to tractor and rural roadway safety, celebrate the rural roots of the region, and to extend Macomb’s developing arts corridor.

The first of what is hoped to be many tractors throughout the Macomb and McDonough County Forgottonia district, is located at Mummert Pocket Park, next to Macomb’s popular Bold Brew House and Forgottonia Brewing. The project features a vintage Farmall H tractor depicting scenes of farm life in the area that was intricately and painstakingly hand inlaid with mosaic glass tiles. By night the tractor is illuminated by hundreds of LED lights.

The project was unveiled on September 11, 2021 as part of the city’s Art, Wind & Fire Festival, and was born from a local, grassroots effort to bring safety awareness to farm machinery, particularly those on the move on our rural roads and highways. Quinn’s inception of Tractor Town Macomb came after the spring 2019 death of local farmer Tim Sullivan, when his tractor was tragically struck by a large vehicle on U.S Route 67, between Macomb and Good Hope.

Along with many other large scale mosaic pieces, Kelley Quinn produced the nation’s largest seven circuit Prairie Labyrinth which can be experienced at the Macomb Park District‘s Lakeview Nature Center.

Fundraising for the Tractor Town project is ongoing and donations can be made at macombartscenter.org/projects-donations and gofund.me/20edc47b.