Allis Cotton Days 2026

Going on a slightly different tangent, has been suggested by several people that I give a briefing on the future of the show, or given the current scenario, a lack of future. I've gotten many questions from a lot of people, so I guess this makes sense to just put it out there and explain. Please don't think it's to garner any kind of sympathy, I'd really rather not tell the story, but I know at the show everyone is going to be asking anyway, because I've gotten so many questions so far. 

It's been a joy putting this collection of cotton strippers together over the last 8 or so years, and several puzzle pieces just happened to fall into place along the way to end up with some of the more rare pieces the collection contains. Until the end of July this year, I had no intentions of this year being the last show, however, a few different issues have came into play, the biggest being losing my machinery storage. 

For five years now, a lady whom I used to farm for made an agreement with me to allow storage of my equipment in a large, old shed she has. She wasn't using it, and I needed storage, so we struck a verbal agreement, and that's been the case ever since. Every year I pushed for a written agreement with clear beginning/end dates, but she insisted what we had was sufficient. She's now in a nursing home after having two strokes. Her two daughters have had her declared mentally incompetent and have seized control of her estate, although personally I disagree with the diagnosis their doctor friend made. One of their first actions was to tell me that due to me not having a written lease, I had to vacate the building, and it was later determined Oct 1 would be the date to have everything out by. I was, however, able to negotiate a later date in November, since I'll be getting everything out for the show anyway. With this 50x220 shed, they are looking to put round bales of hay and stock trailers inside, and the owner's son-in-law insisted there would be no room for anything else. They must have a lot of hay. 

The first immediate solution that comes to mind is build a shed of my own. I'm still young, and in the five years I've been farming, haven't built up enough of a cushion to leverage the cost of erecting my own building, let along one big enough to store all of these cotton strippers. As far as renting another place, most of Western Oklahoma has an equipment storage deficit, with I'd say a majority of farmers leaving their equipment sit out year-round. Of course, a lot are the BTO type who trade every so often anyway, so there isn't much chance for equipment to get severely weathered before it's traded. All this to say, I've been unsuccessful so far in finding other storage options. I will most likely build a small shed for the core machines I farm with, but it won't be large enough for everything. 

I'm going to continue to think of options, but several of these strippers have been stored inside their whole life, and I refuse to be the first person in 50-60 years to let them sit outside year-round. An old man told me once "you'll pay for a barn, whether or not you build it", and I'm a firm believer in that. However, as I said, the cushion needed to leverage such a large amount of capital isn't here. There will most likely be a downsizing auction in the spring. I will retain a couple pieces, ones which have been outside most of their life anyway, so if anyone has an interest in obtaining a piece of Allis cotton harvest history, let me know.