A SPECIAL TREAT Have you ever dreamed of traveling to the top of the world to see the snow-capped majesty of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, a once-in-a-lifetime view that you'll never forget? Rent a snowmobile and make your dream come true. Red River has several snowmobile rental companies who conduct guided tours through the snowy forest to the high country meadows. It's a great way to see the spectacular vistas of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. The Snowblazers Snowmobile Club and the Red River Chamber of Commerce maintain a program of trail grooming throughout the winter season, providing nearly one-hundred miles of smooth trail riding opportunities for your winter pleasure in the Kit Carson National Forest. There's a warming hut at the foot of Greenie Peak, which provides a great place to have a picnic. P.S. Bring your own grub but leave the grog behind: snowmobiling and alcohol are a tragedy waiting to happen. P.S.S. If you are a privateer hauling your own personal sled into the area for some trail riding, be aware that it is illegal to operate snowmobiles on a state highway. Main Street Red River is also Highway 38, so snowmobile traffic is prohibited on Main street. A BRIEF SNOWMOBILE HISTORY While the modern day recreational snowmobile is a fairly recent creation, over-the-snow motorized travel goes back to around 1908, five years after the Wright brothers motored into the skies of North Carolina. The Lombard log hauler, a large cumbersome machine resembling a steam locomotive (half track design with skis up front), was designed and built in Waterville, Maine. It had no steering mechanism, so its use as a log hauler was limited to straight lines. O.C. Johnson is credited with constructing the first steerable machine in 1909, a ten foot long "one lunger" engine machine that traveled on top of the snow. By 1922, J. Armond Bombardier produced a wind driven sleigh using a Model T engine. The Canadian youth was fifteen years old at the time. The first U.S. patent for a single rubber track vehicle was filed in 1927 by Carl Eliason of Wisconsin. Eliason had built his first "motorized toboggan," as he called it, in 1924. It was a wooden toboggan fitted with two skis, steered with a rope and powered by a small Johnson outboard motor. These early sleds were designed to make traveling and working a viable reality in the frozen climes of North America. History reports that the snowmobile as a vehicle of recreation and fun didn't materialize until the mid-1950's. David Johnson is credited with building the first "for fun" machine for Polaris Industries, a farm equipment manufacturer. By 1958, Polaris was in the snowmo business. The first appearance in Red River of motorized sleds is believed to have occurred in the early 1970's. They were originally used as business tools to traverse the snowy mountain trails, but the recreational value became quickly apparent. By the early 1980's snowmobile tours were taking visitors to the high country for a rare winter glimpse from the top of the world. There were 257,936 snowmobiles sold worldwide in 1998; 68,6188 in Canada and 162,826 in the U.S.A. There are approximately 2.3 MILLION registered snowmobiles in North America. Total annual expenditures by snowmobilers on the sport in the U.S.A. and Canada is over $9 BILLION.