On Saturday, Dennis (Den) Rohde of Carroll was inducted into the Iowa Tractor Pulling Association during the ITPA banquet in Carroll, Iowa.
Rohde got started in 1986 during Carroll's centennial celebration. The three-day event was to end at noon on Sunday, but Rohde talked with several people in the area and decided to do a Nebraska Bush pull on a piece of property he owned along Highway 57 on the south edge of Carroll.
That was the first of many pulls for Rohde.
Majority of the pulls were farmer pulls for the first few years, but it wasn't long before he crossed paths with some Iowa tractor pullers.
He hosted Iowa and Nebraska Tractor Pulling Association pulls (now they are two different entities) exclusively and eventually thanks to hard work on his part and on the parts of promoters in Hinton and Onawa, Iowa and the ITPA, the Western Sweep was brought about.
The reputation Rohde built reached far, and pullers looked forward to the weekend of pulls -- three and sometimes four-day weekends of pulling, when Boone, Iowa joined the sweep for a number of years.
For the Rohdes, tractor pulling had become a family -- and friend -- affair.
Rohde and his wife Alice may have been the organizers, but without the help of their chidren and numerous friends who worked on a volunteer basis the pulls wouldn't have been as successful as they were.
Over the years, Rohde added features for the pulling area, cemented areas for the scale and electrical hookups.
The work was hard and every ounce of effort that went into the facility helped to make it one of the best pulls in the area.
The un-airconditioned cook shack was manned by Alice, which often held 9 to 11 roaster pans of meat to feed the pullers and workers prior to the pull and be available at the two concession stands throughout the pull.
The Carroll Tractor Pull had a good run with Rohde closing the facility in 2011.
Numbers had dropped and many chose to spectate and pull in Wisner.
After 25 years as a promoter, Rohde decided it was time to hang it up.
Den and Alice have been married for 47 years with two daughters and a son, four grandsons and three granddaughters and nine great-grandchildren.
Several friends and family members who had helped with the pull over the years were there Saturday to see Den honored.
