It was an interesting time in the winter of 1960-61 as I ended my first season as a canoe outfitter in Duluth, Minnesota.
Some of my old school chums had crossed my path in setting up
the Chippewa Camping Outfitters, and now one, Tom Halvorson, had quite
a story to tell. Tom’s father, Roy, had built almost an empire out of
producing small Christmas trees, filling a need with a quality product.
Tom explained that they had used some “woods equipment” that
became the key to producing the thousands of trees that they marketed
each year. The Canadian company from which they bought that equipment
had something new to consider, and Tom wondered if I had time to look
at it with them.
The new product was a mechanical dog sled, which reportedly
went well even on deep snow. It was made in Québec by a company
owned by a family named Bombardier. Tom, it turned out, had been a
Bombardier dealer for several years, since they specialized in
equipment absolutely necessary to the Halvorsons’ success.
This newest invention of Bombardier was, according to Tom, to
be named Ski Dog since, like sled dogs, it would spend as much time in
the snowy country as necessary but with fuel as its food.
Sparse
yet functional, the first few SKI-DOO snowmobiles laid the groundwork
for more increased freedom to move around on the snow. MUSÉE J. ARMAND
BOMBARDIER
Realizing that I had little to do until the late winter sport
shows and with much curiosity, I promised to come to look at this
mechanical dog sled when it arrived.
For individuals needing to get around on the snow up to this
point, dogs seemed the best option. In the period of waiting to see the
mechanical “dog,” I explored the world of sled dogs and found that they
were expensive, in price and food, limiting their potential. And they
needed care year-round, great for a full-time hobby or business, but
tough for those who simply needed to get around on snow.
Still, would a mechanical device be able to replace the versatile and highly mobile dog sleds?
I quickly discovered what forces this Bombardier family could
enlist in their service if J. Armand Bombardier, the family leader,
thought it necessary. Their plant was in the remote village of
Valcourt, Québec, but if it was mechanical, Bombardier could
create or improve almost anything. J. Armand Bombardier had created the
first snowmobile in his repair shop in Valcourt in the 1930s, but of a
size too big, really, for private personal use.
Already in 1958-59, the company had $3.5 million (Can.) in sales for large snow machines - “l’Auto-Neige” - and other products.
Now J. Armand, whom I would later meet, had something new. A phone call
from Tom announced the arrival of the snow sled, and I rushed down to
see it.
Sitting on Halvorson’s loading dock, the strange little
yellow machine had almost a magnetic attraction. It had a long seat,
two skis in front apparently to steer and an odd rubberized looped belt
under the seat. A Kohler single-cylinder engine was sort of hiding
under the curved front hood, connected to a pulley system which, they
said, made it go.
The several French Canadian men who accompanied this bright
creature were smiling and enthusiastic, but, we discovered, somewhat
limited in usage of the English language. Yet the machine spoke for
itself and that is when it really started - my adventures with
snowmobiles.
 The
unique drive system Bombardier had developed, low gear for power when
needed and a much higher gear ratio when speed was needed, really
worked. As winter developed in 1960, we found it did indeed travel
comfortably on snow and was fun to drive!
The name I had been told, however, was very short (if ever)
lived. Turns out that the one thing the dog sled team inherently knew
was how to get back home in a snowstorm. I suspect that try as it
might, the Ski Dog depended on the driver to know the right way in a
storm, thus, perhaps, the name had to be dropped.
MUSÉE J. ARMAND
BOMBARDIER
The team from Québec agreed (and the powerful Armand
later confirmed) the name SKI-DOO fit reasonably well, and thus it all
started.
I was Bombardier’s first American dealer for the SKI-DOO,
under Halvorson’s developing distribution network. Gil Hartley, quite a
local outdoorsman, bought the first SKI-DOO here.
Snowmobiles have come a long way since the early 1960s. SKI-DOO’s
new MX Z machines offer features and speeds never considered when the
first machines went on the market. BOMBARDIER INC.
These days Bombardier Inc. - now based in Montréal -
has grown into an international multi-division corporation with assets
valued early in 2003 at $29 billion Canadian (about $22 billion U.S.)
Along the way it acquired interests in aerospace (such as Learjet and
Canadair), financing, real estate and other areas as well as its
recreation vehicles on land, snow and water (like the SEA-DOO). It
manufactures airplanes and is especially known for water-bearing planes
to fight wildfires. It acquired railcar designs by Budd and Pullman and
builds subway and other railcars. (One Bombardier plant for such
railcars is in Thunder Bay, Ontario.)
Meanwhile, SKI-DOO, too, and other snowmobile brands have
come a long way in style and capabilities. Faster and sleeker these
days, it’s no longer simply a way to get around on the snow, it’s an
excuse to get out on the snow … it’s still fun to drive.
A selection of Jim Marshall’s columns of lake lore and his inland sea voyages
has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge
by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link
for more information. |
