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	Podcast:		Local Features by WXPR
	Episode:		Story of the Snowmobile
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:03:45
	Publish Date:		2021-02-10 03:34:00
	Description:		The town of Sayner promotes itself as the “birthplace of the snowmobile” and the community has a legitimate claim to that title. However, as with so many historical topics, the story is a bit more complicated than that. Carl Eliason’s hand-built 1924 motor toboggan is on display in Sayner’s Snowmobile Museum, and Eliason’s design was the prototype for the modern snowmobile. While Eliason’s model became the most successful, it was not the first, and Northwoods residents experimented with all sorts of snow machines before settling on Eliason’s toboggan. One of the earliest attempts at over-snow travel accompanied the bicycle craze of the 1890s. In Wisconsin people experimented with bicycles equipped with runners and gripping fins. Unsurprisingly, this did not last long. A few steam propelled sleighs appeared, and as early as 1895 a couple of inventors in Brule, Wisconsin, submitted a design for a propeller-sled. However, the most successful design that predated Eliason came out of New
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