 Earlan
B. Campbell Memorial Snowmobile Trail
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Well time goes on and in 1971 my
father passed away at the age of 52. I dwelled on those early trips
and the people I met and the experiences that I had had for years. I
had learned a lot and it meant allot. About 5 years ago I began to
wonder what happened to all the old Rangers, Voyagers, Bull Cats,
Mustangs etc. So I started looking. Finally I mentioned it to the
right guy and he told me about a Ranger that his father still had. I
grabbed my oldest brother Wayne and we went to get it. Wayne was
everything from a water boy to a mechanic on those trips so he was
pretty nearly enthused as I was. You talk about gone – this thing was
sitting outside on the north 40, rusted out, full of bullet holes,
only about half there but it was a Ranger. After two years of hard
work and digging for parts, it was an excellent looking K – 95 Ranger.
Over the past few years I have had this sled at several exhibits and
it has lead to leads on several more, which my brothers and I have
restored.
In June of 1982, a friend of mine named Bob Brodeur came to me came to
me with an idea. He had recently been in Baxter State Park and had noticed the
remnants of an old trail that my father had brushed out in the early 1960’s
for the expeditions. It was about four miles of trail needed as a link so they
wouldn’t have to trailer the sleds. Bob was a young pilot and a friend of my
fathers when dad was making these trips. Bob’s idea at that time was to have
reunion of all the men that participated on the early trips and clear this
trail
again and dedicate it in my father’s name. He planned on doing this with the
local snowmobile club, the Northern Timber Cruisers. My family and myself were
more than pleased with this idea. And we offered to help in any way we could.
Bob found though to do this with the magnitude with which he wanted to do, was
a much bigger undertaking that he figured and that he couldn’t do it in six
months. So he postponed the reunion for one more year but did decide to go on
with his pals for the trail. The trail was dedicated, complete with
dignitaries and news coverage in February 1983 as the Earlan B. Campbell
Memorial Snowmobile Trail. The trail is groomed every year now and sees a lot
of traffic. Meanwhile, Bob was still working on his reunion for February 1984.
Thanks to Bob Brodeur and the Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile Club, the
Earlan B. Campbell Pioneers Reunion in February of 1984 was a tremendous
moving success. We had about four antique sleds restored by then that were on
display and a good percentage of those early sledders were in attendance.
Guided trail rides were given and we all took a ride through that section of
my fathers trail. A huge banquet was given that night with several interesting
speakers following. Edgar Hetteen was among those speaking and showed films of
his earliest sixties trip in Alaska. It was a very exciting weekend and was
covered in an issue of Snow Goer magazine.
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