Bibliography

Bookwood has only the 1992 issues. That issue contains:

"North Woods' cross country ski trails offer great recreation, spectaclar scenery" has a paragraph about the Barnstormers Snowmobile Club in Sayner (P. 15)

"Sayner blessed with ski, snomo trails; chamber's Winterfest planned Feb. 29" (P. 25) contains the following: "Snowmobiling is the most popular [winter sport in Sayner], and rightly so. Sayner is the birthplace of the modern snowmobile. And the community still carries on the snowmobiling spirit that inventor Carl Eliason started in 1924.

“Eliason met the needs of northern Wisconsin for a machine-powered way to get around in the deep winter snow. He succeeded in the wake of many attempts before him. In 1924, the member of a pioneer Sayner-Star Lake family mounted a small engine on a toboggan equipped with skis under the front part and a continuous tread under the rear.

“He patented the snow sled in 1927 and manufactured 40 of them. Upon receiving an order for 200 from Finland, Eliason sold the patent. The snowmobile industry took off, with the U.S. government buying 300 for military use. Today there are some 2 ½ million snowmobiles in North America and around 9 million snowmobilers.

“Eliason died in December, 1979, at the age of 80, and his funeral procession was fittingly a parade of snowmobiles.

“Many of the early-day snowmobiles can be seen at the Vilas County Historical Museum in Sayner.”