Minnesota Orphans

[skiroule]

Was looking up the dates for the Waconia show in January and saw that the show theme for this year is Minnesota Orphan snowmobile manufacturers. The website published the following list of MN manufacturers that have gone by the wayside (there may be others).

Pretty funny to look at this list some 40+ years after the fact. I have definitely not heard of some of these. My favorite is the Swinger made by Grizwold Industries.

2016 Minnesota ORPHAN List:
Here is a list of the snowmobile manufactures that we consider the ORPHANS for the 2016 show. Please let us know if we forgot a former Minnesota snowmobile manufacturer.
1. Abe Mathews. Trailmaker. Hibbing ,MN
2. Boetel. Skibird / Grandprix. Mora , MN
3. Ridge Runner. Mpls, MN
4. Trail A Sled. Scorpion / Sno Craft. Crosby, MN.
5. Innovar Inc. Sno Coupe. Dunnell, MN.
6. Couparall Sno Pony. St Paul, MN.
7. Grizwold Ind. Swinger. St Paul, MN.
8. Wildcat-Leisure Ind. Wildcat. Mpls, MN.
9. Leisure Design. Diplomat / Rascal. Excelsior, MN.
10. Muscat. Muscaro. Forest Lake, MN.
11. Sno-Byke Inc. Sno-Byke. Mpls, MN.
12. Herters. Husky. Waseca, MN.
13. Jet Dynamics. Hornet / Stinger / Sno-Bee. St Cloud,MN.
14.TT Industry’s. Sno-Shoo. Edgerton, MN.
15. Viking Snowmobiles. Viking. Twin Valley, MN.
16. Farmington Engineering. Coyote. Farmington, MN.
17. Larson Boat. Falcon / Hawk / Eagle. Little Falls, MN.
18. Fredrick Willys. Galaxy/ Sno-Dart. Farmington, MN.
19. Moorhead Plastics. Yukon King / T Bird / Es Kee Mo Moorhead, MN
20.Go-Byke Ind. Hus-Skee. Rothsay, MN
21.Brutanza Eng. Brut. Brooten, MN.
22. Fun Seasons. Sno-Blazer. Burnsville, MN.
23. Thor Manufacturing. Thunderbolt. Ada, MN
24.Recreational Research. Mavrik. Prior Lake, MN.

 

[kirk600]

that is a pretty cool list of old Manufacturers.........I saw a much smaller list from Michigan recently, don't recall where though.....

 

[skiroule]

Yeah, I think there were well over a hundred manufacturers in the early 70's, plus the sellers like Sears that subcontracted to other manufacturers.

If I had any sense of future vision (which I don't) I would have been buying up Bruts like crazy 30 years ago - probably could have picked them up for a fraction of what they are worth today. Being one of the first production sleds (if not the first) with liquid cooling, these sleds were cutting edge. Plus, they had that "go fast" styling. Seems like these sleds are now a prized possession in a lot of vintage collections.

Should be a good year at Waconia. I plan to be there, riding some form of old iron.