When a strapping man in bib overalls and a straw hat pulled a rope to activate a collection of steam whistles on an antique tractor nicknamed “Betty Pitts,” the entire crowd at the Homesteader Days annual celebration Saturday took notice. Honestly, half the town likely heard the many whistles blasting through the relative quiet like a train approaching Bent Street.

The operator, Lance Streets, gets a huge smile on his face each time he pulls the rope. He loves the annual celebration, antique farm implements and all the fond memories wrapped up in Betty, the massive tractor.

The strapping young man with a red beard became enamored with antique farm tractors a couple dozen years earlier, long before he could grow whiskers, said the farm’s current co-owner Val Murray-Rentschler.

“I’ve known him [Streets] since he was this high,” she said, holding her hand at waist level. “He’s like a brother to me.”

Murray-Rentschler said her grandfather Bruce Murray started the antique farm implement collection, soon drawing in his son, Keith. They loved showing their many tractors, including the 1914 Buffalo Pitts steam-operated tractor.

Streets said his father owns a steam tractor, and he grew up working on them. Streets also previously attended a three-day steam school in Rollag, Minnesota, where he learned “all the ins and outs about [steam tractors] — how to run them, and how to manage them without blowing them up,” he said.

Now, he’s working toward steam-engine certification in Montana, an effort that includes logging the hours he operates steam tractors.

“Wyoming doesn’t require you to be certified ... so, whoever I run steam engines for, I can get time against my certification,” he said in a previous interview with the Tribune.

One day about 15 years ago, Streets, owner of Streets Customs north of Powell, was heading for the Murraymere farm to work on “Betty Pitts.” As he neared the historic Powell-area farm, Jolene Sheets, an employee on the expansive farm, was told a Murray family friend was coming to work on the tractor. Single, Sheets expected an older gentleman because she thought “only old guys are interested in antique tractors.”

But when she saw Streets step from his truck, she immediately was captivated by his broad shoulders, heart-warming smile and kind eyes. She ran back into the house and told Val Murray-Rentschler that he was “beautiful.”

“It was love at first sight,” Sheets said. “I knew right then that he’s my soul mate.”

Eventually the somewhat-shy gunsmith, who not only fixes all types of guns for his clients but also has created his own highly regarded hand-made cowboy-action revolver with proprietary bullets, got the hint and asked her out.

“You’ve got to understand; up until that point I lived under a rock,” Streets said. “Then, all of a sudden, here she is and she knows my name.”

Streets asked her to join him at the 2014 Homesteader Days celebration, sponsored by Powell’s Homesteader Museum, for their first date. Coincidentally, it was a special year for the family as they celebrated the centennial anniversaries for both Betty Pitts and the Murraymere farm.

Jolene showed up for the date in bib overalls and the two have operated the giant steam engine together ever since. It seems to be a match made in heaven, especially for the Murray family.

After Keith’s wife Rita died during the Homesteader Days event in 2021, followed by Keith’s death two years later, Lance and Jolene promised to keep the steam engine maintained and ready to run for the annual event. Lance and Jolene often forget their actual anniversary, but they’ll always remember their first date every time Betty’s whistle blows.

There were two memorials dedicated to Keith Murray at the event; one on the back of Betty Pitts and another large collection of photographs on a banner hung on a nearby fence. Having Lance and Jolene taking over to keep ol’ Betty running smooth was comforting for Keith. Hopefully he can hear that whistle blowing loud and proud from his renewed afterlife with Rita — probably somewhere near the hay fields in heaven.

“Keith had a love for antique tractors and steam engines because each one embraced their own story of history,” his obituary reads in part. “Next time you hear a steam whistle, know it is Keith saying hello.”