On my trip to Beausejour last weekend, I got a sneak peak at 3 very large, safely locked away file cabinets that contain not only the history of the race track there, but also a lot of historical pictures and information on the Beausejour Polaris plant that was operated there for some time in the 1960’s. The photos below are not even a scratch in the surface of the cool stuff in those cabinets. But there is a lot more to the story than just the photos.
In 1963, Beausejour established itself as the snowmobile capital of Canada by staging the first ever Canadian Power Toboggan Championships. Everyone in the area was “power toboggan ” crazy and this created a lot of excitement and a really good market for sleds.

Local entrepreneur Mike Bosak was already constructing new power toboggans in the area and H. C. Paul was selling Autoboggans in Winnipeg and the surrounding area for polaris. Economics dictated that in order for Polaris to compete for sales in Canada, they look at building the sleds there instead of exporting. They looked for a site near Roseau to build a factory.

It so happens that Beausejour was in the limelight for snowmobile racing and when Allen Hetteen came to town and won the 1965 CPTC title, he asked some questions. Yes, the local officials said, there was a facility large enough and, yes ,we would provide some incentives to help you set up a manufacturing facility. Thus, by the fall of 1965, Gerry Thomas was hired away from H.C. Paul to manage the new Polaris factory.

They built the new Colts and before long had a racing team. Allen Hetteen called in the potential team and had a very serious meeting. “Polaris is NOT interested in 2nd’s or 3rd’s!” Allen said. “We want 1st’s only!” Thus began a very successful effort that dominated the tracks in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario. The effort was headquartered in Tyndall Garage to keep “speed secrets” safe! They were very serious about their racing.

The Polaris Canada plant produced all Playmates, all Star Cars and was the research and development “skunk works” for future special products. A personal watercraft was tested and an aluminum tunnel 1966 Mustang, were a few projects of note.

The plant employed several hundred people at it’s peak, but alas, economics caught up with it and the plant was closed in the summer of 1972. The building still remains as offices and a confirmed rumor has it that several mid 1960’s hood molds are still in the attic, too large to extract. So the ghosts will remain, a grim reminder of once what was!

Factory truck with shiny new Colts!

The caption reads: “This team is representing Polaris industries of Beausejour in the 500 mile Winnipeg to St. Paul snowmobile race underway now. They left Winnipeg Monday morning. The above drivers are Clarence Baker, Larry Johnson and Ed Schindel. Pitman are Gordon Fiebelkorn and Danny Schuland. Also racing from beausejour is Wes Kioski. Participating from Whitemouth are Alvin merke and Gerry Cousins.”

Outside the main beausejour plant with a shiny new sled hauler.

On a sad note, Clarence Baker, noted above as an early Beausejour Polaris racer passed away last fall. Clarence was inv loved in all aspects of snowmobiling in the area, was very active in the community, including serving in the Manitoba Legislature. Clarence was 78.