Visitors and scientists always want to venture into Yellowstone National Park in winter despite intense cold and deep snow. Today, snow coaches and snowmobiles have replaced horses and stagecoaches, making winter expeditions much easier.
During the 1940s through 1960s, “snowplanes” were one of the best ways to traverse Yellowstone's snowy terrain. They were fast, furious, freezing and potentially fatal if operators didn't know what they were doing.
“We went over Yellowstone Lake at 70 mph when it was frozen over,” said author, speaker and former park ranger Bob Richard of Cody. “Two people could ride in one, with the person in front at the controls. You could go wherever you wanted, but you had no heat, and you couldn't stop. Other than that, it was a fun ride.”
If you were really in a hurry, a pilot could get a snowplane to 100 mph.
CallAir
Ira Walker is a fifth-generation Afton resident who owns 15 snowplanes. He initially acquired them for their unique airplane engines but has since been working on restoring and preserving the unique vehicles that look like a cross between a go-cart and somebody’s hobby tinkering put on ski runners.
“I recognized their historical significance, so I began to collect and store them,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The ones still out there are either in operational condition or sitting with collectors or people who have such deep memories that they can’t let them go.”
Snowplanes were among the many innovative designs that emerged from the Call Aircraft Company in Afton. Established by Reuel Call in 1939, the aerospace company operated as a repair facility during World War II while developing and building its single-engine monoplanes.
At the end of the war, the Call Aircraft Co. needed new contracts to keep its local workforce. Walker said they decided to pioneer a new vehicle to help government agencies meet an urgent need in the Rocky Mountain Region.
“The US Air Mail services were beginning to become privatized, and a bunch of military contracts were opening up to the public to deliver the mail in rural areas,” he said. “CallAir started building snowplanes to fill those mail contracts.”
Pieced Together
In the 1940s, winter travel in Yellowstone National Park was primarily accomplished through the old-fashioned “horse and cutter way.” Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh – literally.
CallAir designed and built over-snow vehicles that made winter travel faster and more efficient. The design is reminiscent of CallAir’s airplanes, utilizing the same components in different ways.
“They used an aircraft engine and tubing, then constructed skis out of wood or aluminum,” Walker said. “To acquire those materials, you had to be a manufacturer associated with wartime contracts.”
Thus, the CallAir snowplane was born.
There were also CallAir “snowcars” with tires attached so they could be an all-terrain vehicle. However, most people referred to them as snowplanes because of the way they seemed to fly over the snow.
The aircraft engine installed in the cab powered a massive prop attached to the back of the vehicle, which is how they became known as “snow planes.” Walker said the power generated from those propellers made even snow planes with low horsepower engines incredibly fast.
“Higher horsepower models could get well over 100 miles per hour,” he said. “They could be quite a hazard if the operator didn’t recognize the physical characteristics of the vehicle and handle it accordingly.”
Fortunately, many people operating CallAir snowplanes were pilots who understood the dynamics and could safely and deftly handle the vehicles as they raced over snow-covered roads and landscapes.
CallAir didn’t pioneer the concept of the snowplane but innovated existing designs to create a “somewhat revolutionary" over-snow vehicle, as Walker described it.
“You have to advance all technology to a certain point,” he said. “The idea of travel across snow was revolutionary at the time, and this was one of those stepping stones for the technology that we have today. For the technology of the time, they were the fastest, most economical, and, depending on the operator, safest means of over-snow travel.”
Everyone Wanted Them
With their innovative new snow planes, CallAir started wintertime mail delivery along one of the U.S. Postal Service’s “Star Routes.” The Wyoming Star Route started in Rock Springs and stretched through Pinedale, Bondurant and Jackson Hole.
Walker said the “highlight” of the snow planes’ service career was their utilization in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Their over-snow efficiency made wintertime traversal through the parks fast and easy, allowing the Star Route to extend much further.
“The Star Route broke off in three directions to Cody, West Yellowstone, Montana, and up through Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner,” he said. “Then, those routes extended all over Montana and into the panhandle of Idaho.”
It didn’t take long for the effectiveness of snowplanes to attract the attention of other agencies. The National Park Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department utilized snow planes for various winter tasks that would have been logistically impossible otherwise.
“Snowplanes played a critical role in wildlife management during that time,” Walker said. “The National Park Service and Wyoming Game and Fish were able to manage wildlife in the area and do their patrolling to take care of management issues.”
Meanwhile, snowbound communities suddenly had a new means of traversal and connection with the outside world. Before widespread snow removal and established highways, snowplanes could deliver mail and supplies to remote areas surrounded by impassable miles of snow.
Many agencies allowed their snowplanes to become regional transports, keeping them somewhat accessible to their communities to solve any over-snow issue. Walker believes that’s the greatest legacy of CallAir’s snow planes.
“Eventually, they would relay the mail from one area to another rather than drive the entire route,” he said. “They would go from town to town with multiple vehicles. How they were utilized for government and public relations was definitely a Wyoming innovation.”
Ira Walker stands next to one of the CallAir snowplanes he acquired and restored. Walker is on a mission to chronicle the history of the Call Aircraft Company, which made single-engine monoplanes in addition to dozens of snowplanes for federal contracts. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
Two CallAir snowplanes (red and blue) in the private collection of Ira Walker in Afton. The Call Aircraft Company created snowplanes as part of a military contract for winter mail delivery through western Wyoming, and they quickly became the most sought-after means of winter travel through Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
A restored 1948 CallAir snowplane. This was the 23rd snowplane produced by CallAir, originally used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail through Yellowstone, then as a transport and research vehicle by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
Larry Morrison, editor of the “Cody Enterprise,” standing next to a snow plane on the ice at Lewis Lake, 1955. (Jack Richard Photograph Collection) 
The look like unfinished lightweight helicopters, but for decades snowplanes have been an invaluable tool for getting around the remote areas of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks during winter. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
The look like unfinished lightweight helicopters, but for decades snowplanes have been an invaluable tool for getting around the remote areas of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks during winter. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
The look like unfinished lightweight helicopters, but for decades snowplanes have been an invaluable tool for getting around the remote areas of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks during winter. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
A CallAir snowplane built in the 1950s. This snowplane used to belong to the Wyoming Fish and Game Department and participated in the first winter transportation for tourists in Yellowstone National Park. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
The interior of a CallAir snowplane. Since the Call Aircraft Company originally built airplanes, they used the same components to build their snowplanes, including the engine and propeller attached to the back. (Courtesy Ira Walker) 
Bob Richard, 18, sticks his head out of the window of a CallAir snowplane. At their top speeds, snowplanes could move at 70 to 100 mph, but stopping them at those speeds was extremely difficult, which is why the best operators of snowplanes were pilots who understood the aircraft components used to built them. (Courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; McCracken Research Library; MS089 Jack Richard Collection) 
Bob Richard, 18, sits at the helm of a CallAir snowplane. Only two people could sit in the uninsulated cab of a snowplane, so they had to bundle up and brace themselves for the 70-mph trek through the snowy interior and ice-covered lakes of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. (Courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; McCracken Research Library; MS089 Jack Richard Collection) 
Three CallAir snowplanes moving across Yellowstone Lake in Winter 1955. Once the snowplanes were no longer needed for U.S. Mail deliveries, the National Park Service and Wyoming Game and Fish acquired the vehicles to use in their patrols and scientific expeditions in the snowy interior of Yellowstone. (Courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; McCracken Research Library; MS089 Jack Richard Collection)
Memorable (To Say The Least)
In 1955, Bob Richard, then 18, joined a wintertime expedition into Yellowstone with his father, Bob, and game wardens from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. They traveled throughout the park in a fleet of three brightly-colored snowplanes.
“Dad put fuel for the snowplanes at West Thumb and Jackson Lake Lodge the summer before the expedition,” he said. “It was quite a project to get the snowplanes unloaded, warmed up, and ready to go.”
The snowplanes Richard rode in moved over the solid snow in Yellowstone’s interior at 70 mph. Richard and his father extensively documented the journey on their cameras.
Richard said the game wardens did most of the driving during the expedition as they had more experience handling the controls of the snowplanes. He had a harrowing experience as a passenger while crossing the ice-covered Yellowstone Lake.
“We got on Yellowstone Lake at Mary Bay to head back to West Thumb,” he said. “We were doing 75 mph, and all of a sudden, we found a hot pool – nobody told us there was a hot pool there.”
Richard and his snowplane companion managed to jam the throttle and had enough speed to scoot across the water without falling in. A lucky break.
“We got to West Thumb, got off the lake, and I said, ‘Never again,’” he said.
Arm Or A Leg
Snowplanes were mostly safe in the hands of skilled operators. However, they were inherently dangerous vehicles to anyone who didn’t understand or respect their power.
“They didn’t have any kind of braking system,” Walker said. “They were most dangerous when people tried to take them up or down hillsides. The centrifugal force of the propeller would pull you up to the heel when going up, and the same force would throw the nose down as you were going down. People would start to lose control and roll down the hill.”
Richard recalled how difficult it was to stop a snow plane once it was crushing along.
“We had two cleats that were used as brakes, one on each side,” he said. “They didn't slow you down very much, and on the ice, you couldn’t stop at all.”
The greatest hazard was the massive propeller, which was completely exposed on the backside without any covering to prevent objects from getting caught in it. Richard knew of at least one person who discovered that the hard way.
“Red Wilkerson was a game warden on our 1955 trip,” he said. “A year later, he was working with a snowplane near Big Piney, and when he started the engine, he went toward the back, and the propeller took his arm off.”
Wilkerson survived the incident, albeit armless for the rest of his life.
Replaced And Excluded
Snow planes were one of the most efficient winter travel methods throughout the Greater Yellowstone Region in the 1940s and 1950s. By the 1960s, they became less common as innovation outpaced them.
“As snow removal technologies and roads started to become more established, the need for snow planes fell away,” Walker said. “When the US Postal Service started establishing airfields in the area, they were no longer needed for their original purpose.”
Snowplanes gained a short second wind as wintertime recreation vehicles for Yellowstone exploration. However, snowmobiles and snow coaches quickly became the vehicles of choice over the more complex and dangerous snow planes.
Snowmobiles were temporarily banned in 2000, but after several lawsuits and policy changes, a modified plan adopted in 2005 defined snowmobiles and snow coaches as the only over-snow vehicles permitted in the park.
That ended snowplanes and their important legacy in the national parks. Walker understands why the National Park Service would want stricter management of over-snow travel but doesn’t know why snow planes were excluded.
“A lot of people were getting off the roads, going deeper into the park, and getting into trouble in places they shouldn't have been,” he said. “They lost control of their ability to manage winter transportation in and out of the park. They allowed the snowmobiles and snow coaches but excluded snowplanes completely.”
A Lasting Legacy
Once snowplanes lost their luster, most ended up in scrapyards or abandoned in barns and garages. The Call Aircraft Company was purchased by the Intermountain Manufacturing Company in 1962, leaving behind a small but important legacy in aviation history memorialized at the CallAir Museum in Afton.
Walker has been involved in aircraft manufacturing for over thirty years and has collected and preserved pieces of Wyoming’s aviation history for just as long. He acquired his first CallAir snow plane because he was more interested in the components than the vehicle.
“Once the National Park Service banned them, I recognized their historical significance and started collecting them for restoration and collectors,” he said. “Most of the snow planes I have were used by Wyoming Game and Fish.”
Since then, Walker has been surprised to find several snowplanes intact and lovingly tended to. Snow plane owners often have emotional attachments to the innovative vehicles and still use them for over-snow enjoyment.
“I know of people who will gather in remote locations a few times a year to relive those memories of running snow planes in Yellowstone and Grand Teton,” he said. “They just can’t let go of them.”
Walker has tapped into this network of enthusiasts and historians to chronicle the history and lasting impact of the Call Aircraft Company. Snowplanes are a small part of a much larger story, and one he’s glad to ensure will be preserved for posterity.
“I have enough to do a book and possibly a small documentary on snowplanes,” he said. “It’s a unique part of history that needs to be saved and, I believe, returned to the parks in some small form.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
