Enthusiasm is horribly infectious. Jerry Kingbaum is amazingly enthusiastic. So are all his friends out in Spokane Washington and the neighboring states. Put them all together in one spot on a bright sunny day, throw in a pile of other vintage sledders, some good food and a lot of old snowmobiles and you got all the fixings for a very good time.
Jerry is the owner and curator of the Northwest Museum of Vintage Snowmobiles in Spokane Washington. It is open to the public and not to be missed. It’s pretty large and varied collection of antiques, consumer and race machines, as well as photos, memorabilia and motors.
Here’s a few highlight photos and videos from the show.
Classic Muscle Sleds Lee Fredrickson made the trip all the way from Minnesota and got the honor of interviewing Ski-Doo legend Duane Eck as well as Polaris race legend Meryl Schroeder. Most will remember Eck from winning the 69 speed wars on his Double Eagle, and Schroeder from his major upset at King’s Castle in 1970 when his 650 and 800 Polaris racers beat up on all the factory race teams of the time.
Inside the museum, Jerry has this elaborate collection of Polaris race sleds with all kinds of Western race history.
Inside is Jerry’s special "Merc room". It features on of every Merc racer, including an original 76 factory Snopro originally driven by Stan hayes.
In the other side of the museum, Jerry has assembled a sweet collection of racers, muscle sleds, antiques, unusual manufacturers and custom sleds that you can spend hours looking at.
This antique sled attached to a Polaris rear-engine antique could be one of the very slays Edgar Hetteen and his crew pulled behind on their Polaris sleds across Alaska for the very first time. It was a very memorable trip that got Polaris some excellent press coverage – but eventually led to Edgar’s departure from Polaris and his founding of Arctic Cat.
Probably more than any other sled at the show, this one caused and enormous amount of buzz. Although not 100% confirmed, this appears to be one of only one or two 12 to 24 aluminum tunnel Skiroule racers built. Jacques Villeneuve may have been the original driver. There is all kinds of stuff on this rare sled to indicate it’s something special.
For several weeks now I’ve chronicled the story of Steve Thorsen’s original 1978 Eagle River World Championship 440X Polaris race sled. Well now, I’d like you to meet the owner: Rob McmIllian and his family were there and I can’t tell you how nice it was to finally meet him and the family after I’ve been talking with him on the phone now for a couple of years about his sled. He and his family were just a lot of fun, and talk about Enthusiastic – Rob is another guy who just loves to share, learn and compare.
Meryl Schroeder’s original 1971 Polaris race sled. Meryl was a Polaris dealer as early as 1968. He made four motors for the Kings Castle race in 1970 – and all four motors won their classes. "It changed my life when I won those races" he said. "Everything changed for me. I got offered new jobs and opportunities I never would have imagines otherwise. " I even got to interview Meryl for my book, Star Fire Kids – Midnight Blue Express. That was so much fun for me, and I’d like to thank Meryls for taking the time on such a busy day.
Roger Biddescombe gets an award from museum owner Jerry Kingbaum. Roger has been active in snowmobiling and snowmobile racing from the early years and has been a huge help in the development of the museum and was very helpful in the getting the show going.
WOW! Okay, I am an RXL guy and this was simply amazing. I don’t believe I’ve seen this many RXL’s all in one place – including two of the original factory sleds and one World Champion. All of them in fantastic condition and well taken care of.
Thomas Fiel and his original 74 650 Cat SnoPro. I sat and talked with Tom for quite some time – this is probably the most original 74 SnoPro – it’s very much exactly how it came off the race track. The sled was originally driven by Tom Marks, and was more than likely the sled he crashed on in 1974. I’ll have much, much more on this baby in an upcoming post.
More photos are posted in the Bull Sessions here and here.
Thorsen sled running:
Brad Hulings 1980 Scorpion SnoPro running:
Secrets of the 79 Scorpion SnoPro with Jeff Biddescombe: