It was the genesis of snowmobile tourism in Wyoming. History was being made on a lonely mountain top. It was freezing. And I was there.
Let me tell you about it.
It was a bitter cold but sunny day in the snowfields on South Pass as Wyoming announced to the world that it planned to become a snowmobiling mecca.
That was January, 1971, and three legendary snowmobile pioneers were involved.
Oh God, Those Machines
Back then, 54 years ago, snowmobiling was in its infancy. Those early snowmobiles were horrible contraptions. But they were also wonderful machines. For with them, you could go distant places that could be very hard to get to during the summer.
Polaris, Arctic Cat, and Ski-Doo were the industry leaders. Our family had lived in Wyoming less than six months and we already owned a Polaris and a Ski-Doo.
It was said that for every two hours you spent riding, you probably would spend four hours in preparation and maintenance.
Even The Governor Was There
This tour started in Sundance, according to Gene Bryan, one of just two surviving members of those early promotional expeditions. I am the other.
The tour was organized by Bryan, Randy Wagner, Pete McNiff, John Williams, and others from state government and local snowmobile groups. Lander’s Snowdrifter’s Club was one of the premier clubs in the entire Rocky Mountain Region and was host to the South Pass event.
Earlier up in Sundance, Bryan saw Williams who worked for the state’s economic development group, lose control of his machine and it smacked into Gov. Stan Hathaway’s snowmobile and tossed the governor into a snowbank. He and the First Lady Bobbi were there to do some touring and dedicate a new snowmobile race track in Sundance. It was a dubious start for the tour.
By the time they got to South Pass, Wagner was ready to kill Williams who had even more nonsense lined up.
But the big celebrity in the Fremont County gathering was the arrival of a man with the incredible name of Jarle Bjiqule Stein-Odd Leirfallom. He was Conservation Commissioner of Minnesota and knew all about snowmobile tourism. He also may have been a direct descendent of Leif Erikson.
He loved zooming up and down the mountainsides. Wyoming’s unparalleled blue skies and bright sunshine were a marvel to this man from the land of the never-ending overcast gray. He said he had never been happier.
Later he wrecked a machine in the Double Cabin area outside Dubois. After a short apology, he ambled over to someone else’s machine and took off in a cloud of snow dust.
And that Williams guy? Well, he ended up taking off on his own and getting lost which meant most of the crew spent hours trying to find him. Seems he had ridden back to the parking lot and took his car back to town. Wagner was steamed.
Leirfallom and Wagner are two of the three giants of snowmobiling that I mentioned. The third is the late great Jimmy Smail of Lander. Jimmy is in the International Snowmobile Hall of Fame. I was lucky enough to have written the nominating letter getting him there.
Snowmobiling Reached Its Potential
From that time on, Wyoming has bloomed into a true snowmobile destination. Last year snowmobiling had a $200 million impact on the state. There are 2,100 miles of trails.
Soon riding through Yellowstone was considered the dream trip in the Cowboy State and it was a big business. My first trip through the park was in the 1970s with Randy and Jimmy. We were a large group that included other media folks. My cabin mate at the Snow Lodge was Terry Gross, a radio personality from Casper. Nice guy. He, coincidentally, had the same name as the more-famous female radio personality on NPR.
As a publisher, soon we were publishing the statewide snowmobile newspaper with Betty Sable of Lander, who was its editor and who also is in the International Snowmobile Hall of Fame.
And then later, we published statewide winter tourism magazines which featured skiing and snowmobiling both independently and for the state.
I wrote a column about 35 years ago detailing how my eight-year old son Michael rode with me as we motored up to Blue Ridge on the Loop Road outside of Lander. Then we found our way to a cliff overlooking the entire Lander Valley. I swear you could see Casper from there. It was awesome and one more example of just how special these machines were. You could go to so many places so much faster than any other way during any other season.
Alas, All Good Things End
Finally, we were just too old to ride and we sold our machines eight years ago.
But I recall the very first time I ever rode one. Smail invited me to come along with seven other guys and it was so much fun. We rode up to Frye Lake on the Loop Road outside of Lander near Sinks Canyon and stopped. I immediately got off my machine and sunk up to my armpits in snow. Yikes!
Everyone laughed and they explained that you never, never do that. They worked hard to get me back up on my sled. I was embarrassed but sure glad this misadventure happened with a crowd there to help me.
That started a 44-year career of finding the most fun possible out of Wyoming winter. Those were wonderful days.
And it was a wonderful memory to know that we were there at the dawn of the new age of Wyoming winter tourism.
Bill Sniffin can be reached at: Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
