"Grandpa had it, Dad threw it away, now I’m buying it back"

Take the thrill of skiing, the excitement of bobsledding, the exhilaration of boat racing, and the chills of motorcycle riding and what do you have? The exciting sport of snowmobiling enjoyed by millions. Its growth is greater than that of skiing, sledding, or skating.

There is a long-standing controversy over who actually invented the snowmobile. The controversy revolves around what is considered a snowmobile. By today’s standards, a snowmobile is a tracked motor vehicle with steering skis, weighing between 250 to 500 pounds. Designed to travel through snow, it is propelled by a revolving track and a gasoline engine of 6 to 50 horsepower supplies power. The newest model sleds are over 100 horsepower and can reach speeds over 100 mph.

The first over-the-snow vehicles were built in the northern parts of the US and Canada for practical work purposes such as hunting, trapping, logging and transportation. In 1911, Raymond Kuhl, put together a used motor, steering post and radiator from a 1906 Model T Ford. Virgil White of New Hampshire made an attachment for a Model T Ford to convert it for over-the snow use. Skis replaced the front wheels of the Model T, and an additional pair of wheels was added to the rear. The Ford Motor Company put out an official special adaptation for their car in 1928. Admiral Byrd used this adaptation on this polar expedition in 1928-29, but about a hundred miles from camp the machine coughed, seized up and shuddered to a stop. The Ford Motor Company decided that the snow machine had no commercial value and stopped making them.

Before 1930, no one had addressed himself to the problem of making a mass-produced vehicle cheaply for recreation. In 1927, Carl Eliason of Sayner, Wisconsin patented a "motor toboggan" that had ski-like front runners and a rear drive track. Between the years of 1922 and 1926, Eliason perfected the machine and turned out forty of them, all by hand, himself. The early machines used a 2.5 hp outboard motor for power and a metal frame body. In 1932, Eliason introduced an improved model that was bigger, sturdier and used a converted motorcycle engine and could travel over 40 mph. He is credited for creating a reliable, self-propelled vehicle that cold be manufactured on a sustained production basis. His design served as a prototype for manufacturers to follow.

It was Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Canada, in 1959 – 60, who was the first to mass-produce the snowmobile. His inspiration – one of his children died of appendicitis because he could not be transported through deep snow. He was determined to make a good, reliable, over-the-snow vehicle for emergency snow transport. The real breakthrough in the field, however, was the development of the lightweight engine. The first mass-produced snowmobile was the Bombardier-designed Ski-Doo. In 1960, he sold 225 of these machines for $1,000 each.

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