Antique snowmobile show slated for Saturday

Rogers City is a place where people have always enjoyed snowmobile outings and this weekend will be especially interesting. Saturday’s Antique and Vintage Snowmobile Show is expected to draw enthusiasts to Rogers City from all over the Midwest and as far away as Florida. This is the first time an antique and vintage snowmobile event has been organized locally, largely thanks to the efforts of Dan and Tina Derry of Rogers City. Both enjoy riding, talking, and showing snowmobiles throughout the year.

About 75 snowmobile enthusiasts are gathering this Saturday at the Driftwood Motel on the Lake Huron shoreline to check out the sleds and trade stories. Registration for the event will begin at 9 a.m. but, according to organizer Dan Derry, many people arrive early to set up their machines and get situated before going out to see who is at the show. There is a pre-registration “social hour” at the Waters Edge restaurant and lounge set to begin at 5 p.m. on Friday. The antique and vintage snowmobile crowd is a loose affiliation of close friends. These folks may not always attend the same shows but everyone is treated like family just the same.

The Derrys have been attending shows and collecting sleds for about six years. Ever since their first show in the UP the couple thought about having one in Rogers City. Asked what took so long to do it, Tina replied, “We knew it would take a lot of time and effort. And, you know what? We were right!” The Rogers City Antique and Vintage Snowmobile Show committee, City Council, Jim Dempsey of Rogers City Travelers and Visitors Bureau, Bill Hanchett of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Presque Isle Snow Trail Association all have combined efforts to organize the show.

In addition, the Derrys have been in contact with a wide variety of individuals involved in exhibiting and attending the shows. Dan Derry said the antique machines are those built before 1966. The vintage sleds are from 1967 to about 1979. Another category used by some clubs is Classic. Another way of distinguishing the machines is by whether they are in original or restored condition. Finding one nowadays is done over eBay or through surfing the web for private sales. Occasionally, one may turn up at a garage or yard sale.

“It used to be you could find them up in old barns or laying on rock piles but not anymore,” Tina said. “Today, people know they can check on the value of old sleds on the web is much higher and they immediately put them up for sale on the Internet,” she continued. Whether one favors the antique, vintage, or classic variety, the Rogers City show will be able to satisfy the desire to see and touch that perfect machine. In addition to the exhibits there will be a short ride circuit for sleds to parade around.

Some of the owners offer rides, others just say, “Hop on and give it a try.” A wide variety of events are associated with these shows, such as snowman building contests for kids, bon

fires, rides on antique and vintage sleds. There is even a kind of rodeo event called a snodeo with barrels and roping and similar contests. There will a few Ski-Cats in the show. These sleds were only made between 1967-69 in Rogers City. The company went out of business like a lot of other small manufacturers at that time. A few years of little or no snow over the winter caused a sharp decline in sales that the companies could not survive. Dan pointed out that once there were more than 400 manufacturers of sleds around the country. Today there are basically four main brands: Arctic Cat, Polaris, Skidoo, and Yamaha.

“This is one of the things that makes the shows really interesting. You can see that rare Alouette, Bombardier, or Eliason Motor Toboggan,” he said. And, sometimes you can even see that one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated machine in an antique snowmobile show.