• Sunday-What'sUP March 28 - 03:01 am

As the snow makes way for spring here in the Copper Country, we remember the winter of '64, when the Polaris Sno-Traveler was the hottest trend on the trails. Julie Beck's mom and sisters (Jean, Jill, and Joni) strike an elegant pose with all that horsepower. Love the hats and sunglasses.

Julie is featured on the front page of this weekend's Mining Gazette, in a story by Jane Nordberg about Julie's good fortune in receiving a treasury of family memorabilia. If you tune in each week to these Shoebox Memories, you'll recall the discussion a few week's back about Jack Steven's car (Julie's dad). In the same email with today's featured photo, Julie included a little extra bonus: her dad's earliest automobile, pictured here peddling across the street from the Ryan Funeral Home in Calumet.

Good Morning, and a Most Happy Easter to all.

Happy Easter everyone! Rode on one of those old
Polaris snowmobiles my dad had at one time. Sure took a long time to get anywhere with it though. Got it stuck many times, big & clumsy.

I understand that some one is comming out with a two seater, side by side, like the one in the picture. Does anyone have any information on such a machine? Some of us older folks would like to take a ride through the bush with a loved one by our side.

What a tank; It looks the size of a Nash Metropolitan, or even a Crosley.

What a ride! Some folks just have the life.

Good Morning from Brighton

Happy Easter To All.......

Happy Easter to all of those who keep the
Pasty Cam up and running and all of those
who check in for a "fix" of the UP. We're quite a
little community, aren't we?

Joyous Easter Everyone! The little snow we have down here in Muskegon is gonna melt this week... 50's and higher predicted. So Glad I'll be in UP this Thurs!!!! Marquette and Kenton area where we'll snowshoe into camp..... Gonna walk beach at PJ Hoffmaster State Park today (7 miles from home)to enjoy and play in the snow that will soon disappear! PEACE

John Van Dyke- there is such a machine. I think
Arctic Cat makes it. There is a couple in Houghton that has one. Maybe the Arctic Cat website would show a picture of it.

Happy Easter to all from a Lake Erie correspondent..sunny and 48* today so will be a good day with the family. GO STATE!!!

My friends Father brought a machine home which reminds me of the one above in the mid 60's. We thought it was an antique back then. Can't remember what make it was. It was yellow, engine was in the front, seat went the other way, and I seem to recall it had a reverse gear on it. It sure was a heavy machine! Did ok on hardpack snow or on the road, but trying to break trail we spent more time pushing, pulling, and shoveling than ridding. But we sure had a BLAST!
Have a Happy Easter and thanks for the BLAST FROM THE PAST!

John Van Dyke, what you are looking for is the Ski-Doo Elite Sport I see they made it in 2005 but did not see it in the 2006 line up. Happy Easter to all!!

John Van Dyke- sorry I thought it was Arctic Cat.

Happy Easter and thanks to the Pasty Cam people who do this great website.
As an Illinois resident and happy for the Illini, my heart belongs to Michigan State. May the best team win.

The Ski-Doo site says it is back for the 30th anniversary of it's debut. To bad they can't take the price from 30 years ago $18099.00

Wow... How things have changed! Unreal!

hyvää pääsiäistä to all.

Happy Easter to all! Also to my brother-his wife, sister-her
husband and to Sandstone Princes and her sisters. In the early
70's I had couple snowmobiles. A Mercury which had reverse on
it, which was black, a Skidoo, I think was called Olymus, had 2 -
15" tracks side by side. Was a little heavy but could float over
soft snow where the single tracks couldn't go. We used it to
break trail. Thats years before groomed trails were thot of. Also
had a Polaris back then, it had a cleated track which was great
for traction on hard surfaces. Had fun with all the snowmobiles.

Happy Easter to all. Going to be another beautiful day in the U.P.

Happy Easter to all, Yoopers and wannabe's alike. That little boy's car brings back memories of when I lived in Laurium, about 1956. I got one simiiar for Christmas; it was called a 'Kidalac'. What a job trying to peddle that tank on those broken Laurium sidewalks.

Not to many in the copper country could aford those luxuries in the 60s--most worked for calimet an hecla

ts-not too many can even afford that luxury NOW!!!

What is that first one a 1950's arctic cat or is it a real mans snowmobile a ski-doo!

Happy Easter to all our friends in the Copper Country from sunny Phoenix, AZ.

Wow, talk about a big snowmobile! Steve from WI love the pic of the two seater snowmobile...now if they only had a little seating in the back, hubby and I could take the Abbie and Bailey snowmobiling with us, in da UP, eh. Zoooooooom, zooooom, zooom. :)

I remember in the early 60's, some company, I think it was Johnson, was testing a wierd machine on Bill Parkkila's farm on Hancock Canal Road. This machine was zipping along the top of the snow and Bill told me, he wasn't supposed to say anything about it. They must have given him a few bucks and they were up there for some time. I don't think Johnson ever made a snowmobile, but someone in Pastyland can correct me.

...from sunny Phoenix, AZ
Oh yes, and py da vey, Spring has arrived in Phoenix - high temps of 84°-85° are in the forecast for late in the week!

In 1975 I bought a used Johnson snowmobile, it had an electric starter, and I think a 440 engine that would make it go 70 mph, at which time the windshield would flatten. It was so heavy that when stuck in slush ice on the lake it was nearly immpossible to get out. I still have the hulk at my camp minus the engine. It is still heavy - thinking of digging a hole alongside and tipping it in.

If you click here (I hope you can get this), there is a 1973 johnson for sale on e-bay...has good photos

By Calumet resident on Sunday, March 27, 2005 - 02:06 pm:

Happy EASTER TO all!

What the heck kind of airplane is pictured on the HC airport cam?

That looks like a Piper Warrior to me, it might not be a Warrior but it is a Piper something er other.

The following snowmobiles were sold in the Copper Country in the 1960s & 1970s.
Huskii ------Rudy Kemppainen----Hancock.
Polaris-----Jack Stevens---Canal Boat Sales Hot
Fox Trak----Griffin Sales ----Hoton
Scorpion - Butch Burkman Chassel, Harters, Cal.
Rupp--Neil Marietta, Gregoire Sales, Paul Dube
Ski Daddler--Le Blanc Sales, Lake Linden.
Yamaha---Art Hamel --Lake Linden
Suzuki---Adventure Center, Lake Linden
Sno Jet--Blinker Light Serv. Lake Linden.
Arctic Cat--Kiilunens Repair, Lake Linden
Evinrude---Smith's Hancock, Gregoire Sales
John Deere--Le Blancs LL Griffins Hot.
Johnson--Granters, Calumet
Raider-----Smiths, Point Mills
Tiger------John Fontana, Laurium
Diablo Rouge---John Fontana, Laurium
Moto Ski ----Granters, Salumet
Mercury------Granters
Johnson------Granters
Trail Breaker----Granters
Ski Doo----Jack Stevens, Hoton
And a few more I can't think of.

Mr. Bill: There is a guy in Canada that has a snowmobile made out of a Nash Metropolitan that he has for sale only wants 10,000 grand for it. Have to admit it does look cool.
A very Happy Easter to everybody and hope the Bunny was good to all the Kiddy's.

Remember back in 64'-65' in Fulton, a friends Dad had a snowmobile, think it was a Ski-Doo, bright yellow, with the engine mounted in the back like the pic of the day, and you could take the ski's off and put wheels on the front!!!! Anybody else remember something like that, or have I had too much egg nog?!!!

Canal Boat Sales in Houghton was run by Martin
Steinmetz, James Markham, Paul Hill? Sold boats &
Polaris Snowmobiles.

Looks like a Piper Arrow. It has retractable landing gear. See the doors outbound from the tires.

the plane in the picture is a Piper. It has retractable gear so it is probably a Piper Arrow

Too good of a story not to pass on. My brother in law and a friend of mine would put wheels on their Scorpions. In warm weather they took great delight in driving on paved roads and passing cars at night. I can imagine what those drivers said. I'm sure there was a lot of "What the ....?" This was back in the seventies when we all had fun.

I wish some one could find picture of us kids when we were smaller as our house burn when i was youg and don't have many pictures
I wish That Rafallei woould make me one of Lacriea Bourbonnais i see at his show last summer but he wasn't at his desk there and had to go
I think he's a friend of my nephew Robert Andrews

I have what's left of a '70 Ski-Doo Olympic out in the woods here. Fastest I ever ran it was 55 mph down the road. Plenty fast enough for me. The engine lost one of the crank bearings and won't run without some serious mechanical help. :>) Still have the manual for it someplace.

We had a '73 skidoo growing up and my dad just sold it this last year. It ran pretty well - my kids drove it last winter- they were 15 and that is the age of my fondest memories driving that sled myself. Dave (my hubby) heads home from our beloved Copper Country tomorrow. He will be sad, but I will be glad!

Happy Easter All! I have a 440 Merc that would do 60 mph. It still runs good,but now it needs a new track. It was built in 1974,i sure miss riding it

Hey GUS LL....! Remember the SNO-PONY? That was the one you could take the skis and track off and put wheels on it!! Wasn't around very long as most of those companys fell by the wayside to the big guys.

Gus LL; Snobug late 60's. chuck vickers sold them in dollar bay. single ski, two seater, with rear engine

From March 27, it's only 272 days until Jesus' Birthday.