The History of The M-M Registry

The history of The M-M Registry starts back in January of 1994. A few months prior to that, my father and I had acquired two Minneapolis-Moline "RTU"s. One of them had a badly corroded tractor data plate, so we couldn't read the entire serial number. As a result, we could not establish the exact production year of the tractor. But I really wanted to figure that out, one way or another, so I started thinking of just how to do that.

I noticed that the engine data plate was in wonderful shape, so I could read the engine serial number with no difficulty whatsoever. I thought that there might be some relation between the engine serial number and the tractor number, so I started looking at the serial numbers for a few "R"s to try to figure that out. Before I knew what had happened, I also had come up with a few more questions about the model "R" in general, so I decided to start a registry for the "R" M-M. I wanted to see what I could learn about the "R" in general, I wanted to see how many "R"s were still around, and I wanted to figure out the year of production for our tractor. I sent a letter into The Prairie Gold Rush announcing my registry for M-M "R"s. That letter appeared in the January 1994 issue, and that was the beginning of The "R" M-M Registry. In operating The "R" M-M Registry, I learned a lot, plus I got to meet hundreds of wonderful M-M enthusiasts. Everyone seemed to love the idea of the registry, and some even said I should start a registry for ALL the M-Ms. So, I did.