Spirit of 76' Stars and Stripes Steiger

Don Campbell's 1/12 scale Panther II 

For America's bi-centennial the Steiger Corporation decided to celebrate with a limited production of 50 Panther II's painted red, white and blue. The number 50 was chosen to represent the 50 states. The Spirit of 76' Steigers were built in September of 1975. Delivery of the Stars and Stripes Steigers took an additional 6 weeks to ship  because the finished tractors were sent unpainted from the factory to a local body shop in Fargo, North Dakota for their red, white and blue paint scheme. There was not a brochure made for the 76' Panther II but dealers were sent an instruction flyer on placing the star decals. The photo below was taken in the fall of 1975 at Hoober, Inc. a prominent  IH dealer who brought Steiger 4wds to the east coast. This Panther II was sold by Hoober, Inc. to Norris Hayman of Eastern Maryland who is still farming with it 26 years later.  Ertl produced a 1/32 Stars and Stripes Steiger 4 years after America's 200th Birthday.  In 1980 the Toy Farmer magazine offered a 4 piece set of 1/32 Steigers including the Stars and Stripes. The  toy model was slightly inaccurate as it was a series III Panther instead of a II. In 2002 Don Campbell a talented builder of steel farm and construction equipment hand crafted a 1/12 scale Spirit of 76' Panther II for Jason Hasert owner of ToyTractorShow.com. Don Campbell's Spirit of 76' Steiger is a one of a kind model and only one will ever be built.

October 1975 Panther II at Hoober, Inc.  

Left: Norris and Marlene Hayman December 1975 Right: June 2001 Norris Hayman and his Panther II

Norris Hayman ordered his Stars and Stripes Panther II with a Steiger front end blade from the factory in 1975. Notice the blue blade in the picture on the right.

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