The grounds crew at Old Cahawba Archaeological Park has had tractor trouble for the last few years, but thanks to another historical site in Alabama their problem is solved.

Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury, which recently purchased a new tractor, donated the tractor they were replacing to Old Cahawba.

“Both Confederate Memorial Park and Old Cahawba are part of properties administered by the Alabama Historical Commission, so they heard about our woes. They were getting a new one, and we were lucky enough they handed this one down to us,” said site director Linda Derry.

With 800 acres of land to care for, Derry said the park’s tractor struggles were becoming a problem.

“We have an awful lot of acres to keep up down here, so we were really struggling,” Derry said.

Derry said the old tractor was purchased years ago by the advisory committee, and the park has had plenty of help over the last few years to deal with its tractor issue. She said she is thankful for all the help that has been offered but is glad to know the park has a working tractor of its own that is capable of getting the job done.

Derry said Confederate Memorial Park had discussed donating the tractor weeks ago but were waiting until a new tractor was purchased before making the donation.

She said Old Cahawba’s grounds crew has been waiting eagerly to get the new piece of equipment.

“They’ve been waiting with bated breath for a number of weeks now, and they would come in about every week and ask me if I had heard anything about it,” she said. “It’ll get good use. It’s lightly used, so it’s in really good shape. We hope that it will last us for a very long time.”

Derry said a lot of the park’s upkeep requires a tractor, so having a new one will help maintain the park without having to do a lot of the work by hand.

“Much of [the upkeep] is done using a bush hog, so we use it for things like that,” she said. “It has a lot more attachments than we ever had on our old tractor, so my maintenance guys are very excited about that.”