Scene 1 1046: Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: tractor_mc.

This is driving me crazy because I know it has to be something simple on my part.

I created a new document with two layers labeled, content and actions.

I then create a movieclip named tractor_mc. I create two layers in tractor_mc, one called images, the other called actions.

In frame one of tractor_mc, actions layer, I enter:

stop();

trace("tractor_mc has stopped");

I test the movie and it stops on the first frame and returns, "tractor_mc has stopped". All works well!

I then choose scene 1.

The layer named tractor_mc, has only 1 frame which contains the movieclip tractor_mc, which has the instance name of tractor_mc.

I go to frame one of actions and enter:

trace("this is scene1, frame1");

Test movie and get the expected output of:

this is scene1, frame1
tractor_mc has stopped

Now this is where my problem arrises:

In Scene 1, action layer frame one, I add the code:

trace("this is scene1, frame1");

tractor_mc.gotoAndStop(3);

This returns the error:1046: Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: tractor_mc.

If I remove the tractor_mc.gotoAndStop(3); I still get the error message and the movie clip runs continously.

Am I missing something? I've been thinking about it too long and I'm afraid the answer is right in front of me!

Any suggestions would be helpful.