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Growing up a snowmobiler in northeastern North Dakota, right on the border with Minnesota, one just had to pick sides. The sides available for selection, for most of us, were Arctic Cat or Polars and the choice seemed like a lifetime commitment.
I was a dyed in the Thinsulate Arctic Cat kid. It is rather ironic, then, that my first sled was a Ski-Doo and I ended up riding Polars for a few years and became a Polaris and Yamaha dealer too. Despite my mechanical philandering, my connection to “The Cat” has always been the cornerstone of my snowmobile experiences.
No surprise, then, that I made the voyage to Thief River Falls on July 30 for Cat’s 50th anniversary celebration. The event sparked a variety of memories and recollections for me that day back to the very beginning of my life as a snowmobile enthusiast.
As a young kid, snowmobiles were pretty much a 12 month obsession, with three seasons being nothing more than a cruel interruption. I still remember going into the grocery store as a kid in August and September and ransacking the magazine rack in anticipation of the new snowmobile pubs, like
AmSnow, hitting the stands. The ads and stories that always caught my eye were the ones featuring Arctic Cats.
At the age of nine, I could tell anyone who the “Three Tough Cats” were, who the CEO of the company was, and that Larry Coltom’s nickname was “Mr. 340.” I made my old man stop in every rinky-dink small town so I could fog-up the glass of the local Arctic Cat dealer on a Sunday or lurk around to the fenced “bull pen” out back to see if there were any rare gems sitting in the weeds. I had it bad.
In 1980 and ’81 I went through the gut-wrenching experience of watching the company I loved go through bankruptcy due to a variety of ill-timed convergences of bad luck, not the least of which was two consecutive brown winters. My family had a cabin on Lake-of-the Woods and my dad wasn’t yet convinced that the “short-cut” through Warren, Minn., was worth it, so we drove through Thief River Falls every week on Friday and Sunday on our round trip to “The Lake.”
I still remember driving by the shuttered plant, with its empty parking lot. Thief River Falls seemed to have a pall cast over it, with doubt and nervousness everywhere. One distinct memory I have is of a radio commercial advertising the now historic auction and the stupid jingle that refrained throughout, something about Arctic Cat being “sold to the walls.” I remember being pissed that whoever produced the ad seemed to be making light of the company’s failure. Yeah, I know, “get a life.”
So, I wandered around the 50th anniversary event, taking in the displays of ultra-rare Sno-Pros, Zs, Turf Tigers, and King Kats. The 1982 models that never happened were on display, along with a nice collection of early Polars and Cats with their period red and white color schemes. I was able to rub elbows with racing heros like Jim Dimmerman, Kirk Hibbert, and Brad Pake.
Throughout the event, I kept running into my friend Steve Renslow, another former dealer and all around snowmobile junkie. We both decided the 1972 version was our favorite EXT, with its predated El Tigre body work and purple graphics. As I stood and stared at a fully restored 1971 Panther with a “big mouth” hood and 760 JLO twin I observed “that sled looks better than it ever did in the showroom new.” Steve agreed.
But the one observation that pretty much summed up the weekend, the brand, the whole works was this: most brands have fans, Arctic Cat has fanatics. It starts with people like company VP, Roger Skime and trickles right down to the owners of the end product. Whole companies have developed and grown around just the restoration of Arctic Cat snowmobiles: firms manufacturing parts, decals, you-name-it so people can bring their Cats back to better than showroom new. Other brands such as Sno-Jet and Rupp have a handful of rabid followers; Arctic Cat has thousands of them.
Maybe it was the cool graphics of purple or green, maybe the styling, maybe the model names or the catchy ad campaigns. Whatever it was, or is, it’s something to behold. Thanks to Arctic Cat for hosting a truly special event. “A Mighty Good Feeling Comes With the Cat.”