hetteen to speak at snd convention banquet

Edgar Hetteen, the grandfather of snowmobiling, was a dreamer who longed to challenge the wilderness and survive the elements. He proved to the world that the snowmobile could face up to the harshness of winter and come out on top.

This year Hetteen will be the keynote speaker at the Snowmobile North Dakota state convention banquet on Oct. 25. The banquet is part of the 3rd Annual Winter Expo on Oct. 24-26 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.

Hetteen is credited as being an industry founder, an innovator and a tireless spokesman for the sport of snowmobiling. He started Polaris Industries with his brother-in-law in 1945, and nine years later they built their first snowmobile, the Polaris Sno Traveler.

Along with three others, Hetteen traveled 1,200 miles down the Yukon River in 1960 to prove the durability of the Sno Traveler. A year later he left Polaris and founded Arctic Cat.

Hetteen was inducted into the International Snowmobile Hall of Fame in 1990, and in 1998 he co-authored his autobiography, Breaking Trail.