Backgate Farm Machinery Auction

On February 13th, we start the 63-year-old Backgate Farm Machinery Auction in Stuttgart, Arkansas.  My grandfather, Eddie Blackmon, started this auction in 1949 in a little community called Backgate near the river in Dumas, Arkansas. It was on a property loaned to us by the Clay Cross family, free of charge.  It was a mud hole of an auction and it grew and grew into what it is now.  We now operate the entire six-day auction on a 57-acre concrete runway at the Stuttgart Airport.  We will sell six days and almost 6,000 items – from farm equipment, construction equipment, trucks, trailers, miscellaneous (junk), plus everything in between (if you ever see me, ask me about the three-year reign of the homemade "duck plucker" or the year of the birdhouses). 

In 1995, I graduated college and began working for the family business full time.  I grew up going to Backgate my entire life, but this was my first year for a full Monday through Saturday experience.  This was also the first year of Backgate since my Grandfather had passed away.  I remember driving into Backgate, my first year there, and my dad saying, "This is my first year of Backgate without my father, but it's my first year with my son.”  That was the first time I really felt the sense that the torch was being passed from one generation to another at Blackmon Auctions.  It was humbling to accept the responsibility and be honored with the family business I was stepping into.

Not only is Backgate multigenerational in my family, there are also three and four generation Backgate Buyers.  This auction really is a family affair for many people.  If you love auctions and haven't been to Backgate, you owe it to yourself to make the pilgrimage one year.  Bring your raincoat, your coveralls, a short sleeve shirt, tennis shoes, a sun hat, and some chap stick.  It always rains one day, sunny one day, cold one day, and the wind blows ALL the time… but I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world.

Come down and see us; you won't regret it.
Thomas Blackmon Jr.