Taylor-made creations

TAYLOR -- Ivan Sievers has left his mark all over town. Looking around one can see Sievers' creations from windmills to signs off Interstate-94.

Besides farming all his life, Sievers, 84, builds signs, metal sculpture and fixes just about anything he finds or is given.

"It started out mostly to fix something like a tractor or mower and then I wanted to improve on them," Sievers said. "I've been building things all my life. Ideas just fall into my head and I don't always know where they come from."

Most things are workable, but some hit the junk pile, he added.

He was born and raised on his family's farm east of Taylor. He is retired from farming small grains on the family farm, which is leased by neighbor Rory Rebel.

"I haven't made really any new things I think, just improved on old things," Sievers said. "I've never applied for patents for what I've done, but I remember sometimes seeing something like it a year or two later on the market."

It would have made him too busy if he got patents on his creations, Sievers added.

"When he can't sleep at night I ask him 'what are you building now?' said wife Beryl.

Beryl is from Richardton. She worked as a school teacher for six years in Morton and Stark counties before remaining at home with the family.

The two met at church, but had always known each other. They were married in 1948, have two children and three grandchildren.

Their son Dennis lives in town with wife Vernell and son Nathan lives in Denver. Their daughter LuAnne lives in Nebraska with husband Gil and has two children, Melissa and Bryan.

Sievers is credited for being behind the original idea for Taylor's Horsefest and Good Ol' Taylor Days. He said he has been bringing his different tractors, mowers and miscellaneous contraptions to different activities in town for decades.

The gates surrounding Heritage Hill, which show different types of tractors and colorful images, were done by Sievers. Along with signs and gates, Sievers also has windmills scattered around town and on his farmstead.

For this year's Horsefest, coming up in July, Sievers is changing the drive on the merry-go-round he has made and sits on Heritage Hill. Instead of having a stationary engine running the merry-go-round, he is building three bikes that when pedaled will drive the merry-go-round.

"You pedal these bicycles and then a chain runs down to the three wheels of the merry-go-round," Sievers said.

Last year Sievers brought a whole different kind of transportation to Horsefest. He's not sure what to call it, but the moving vehicle is a frame of an old-time car with wheels that move sideways, up and down, all around and at a gallop. A barrel on the back has all the names of different car brands, which turns as the machine goes. It is a fun ride and doesn't go too fast, he said.

"The first thing I brought to the Horsefest was a horse-powered driven threshing machine, but I overestimated it and it went out," Sievers added. "Outside a little modification, things usually turn out pretty good and if they don't after I try to fix them a couple times they go in the trash heap."

Sievers uses a plasma cutter for most of his sign and metal sculpture designs. People have come to him throughout the years to fix different things for them.

Most recently someone brought him an old buzz saw to make workable, which he has yet to complete. He mostly gives things away and doesn't sell them. He has sold weed sprayers in the past.

Sievers makes small and big things including a central heating plant for his house, two shops and garage on his farmstead.

"I built that about 20 years ago," Sievers said. "I use about 40 tons of coal to get me through the winter pumped through underground lines from a hot water boiler."

He's also made feed wagons for others. His neighbors still use their feed wagons, he said.

"The first thing I ever built was a small grass mower," Sievers said. "The one I was using recently was an old Oliver tractor where I put a mower on it."

Last year, Sievers completed a big project building a road grader. The biggest project he did was a snowplow.

The first project Sievers brought out to the public was his V8 engine tractor for a tractor pull event.

"It out pulled all the others," he said and laughed.

Most of the parts for his creations come from old tractors, trucks and what's lying around his place.

Outside of building and farming, Sievers was a director and secretary-treasurer on the Richardton Fire Department for 37 years.