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By John Colebourn

Rossland, B.C.-based filmmaker and hockey fanatic Scott Carlson knew there was something special about the 1972 Ford 3000 tractor used to flood the town’s local arena.

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As an avid hockey player, he knew the quality of the ice at the town’s only indoor rink was as good as it gets.

But he knew there was a move afoot in the town a few months ago to mothball the tractor that has been used to clean the ice for the past 40 years.

With some free time in December, Carlson and crew shot a short video documentary about the beloved tractor as it appeared in its final days, before it was replaced with a modern and expensive Zamboni.

The result was a two-minute tribute video appropriately named The Flood. Since he posted the documentary on the web a few weeks ago, Carlson says there have been more than 41,000 viewers.

Watch the video:

The tractor was a fixture of the local arena, and Carlson in his research found it was made in Basildon, Essex, in the U.K. Using the serial numbers, Carlson dug up a lot of background about the tractor, which was sent over to Eastern Canada from Britain and eventually purchased by the town from a distributor in Creston, B.C. Since it was bought, the only thing the tractor has been used for is cleaning the ice.