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Monday, February 4, 2008
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Sleds come home
Senior Reporter CROSBY - Angelo Garafola sat on a Scorpion snowmobile and watched a crowd of people walk past the vintage snowmobiles.
Now 88, Garafola used to make fiberglass hoods and the rubber track for the Scorpions at the Crosby manufacturing plant. His great-granddaughters posed for pictures on the sleds nearby at the fourth annual Scorpion Homecoming event, which brings vintage snowmobile enthusiasts together with a Cuyuna Range legacy.
Garafola worked the night shift at the Trail-A-Sled plant. Before that he worked in the mines on the Cuyuna Range. Garafola said he was surprised with the home-grown Scorpion brand got to be so big. Employees at the plant numbers about 500 at one time.
"It was a good place to work," he said of Scorpion plant. And looking at all the sleds people have kept was a pleasant surprise to one who used to help make them. "I didn't think there was that many. There are lots of them out here."
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Eli Cole, 17 months, of Eau Claire, Wis., was wide-eyed and perfectly content to be pulled by his mom, Stephanie Cole, as he passed rows of Scorpion snowmobiles at Saturday's Cuyuna Range Chamber of Commerce Scorpion Homecoming event on Serpent Lake in Crosby.
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Brainerd Dispatch/Renee Richardson
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Scorpions were all his dad would buy, said his son John Garafola, who now makes his home in St. Paul. John Garafola remembers coming up with half the cost of a $600 Scorpion snowmobile in the mid 1960s. He was hooked. Now he has a half dozen of the sleds.
The snowmobiles provided serious color on a gray day as sleds were lined up on the snow covered Serpent Lake in Crosby. This year's feature sled was the 1970 Stinger.
Ray Arnold, Moose Lake, was stung by the Scorpion fever more than a decade ago because of his son-in-law's father. And since then he's converted others. A self-described "shade mechanic," Arnold said he enjoys working on the Scorpion sleds and has restored models for his family and others.
"It's a hobby my wife calls a disease," he said and smiled. Arnold was seated in a lawn chair near a Scorpion pull-behind, which contained a grill with hot-dogs cooking over the fire.
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The fourth annual 2008 Scorpion Homecoming event was a gathering of vintage snowmobile enthusiasts. Trail-A-Sled Inc. was founded in 1959 in Crosby-Ironton with three founders and one employee. The company grew to employ about 500 workers with a payroll in the millions before production ended.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch/Renee Richardson
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Arnold is part of a group of vintage Scorpion snowmobile enthusiasts in the Moose Lake Willow River area. He said it's a way to enjoy winter. With new snowmobiles fast and expensive, Arnold said the vintage snowmobiles are more laid back.
Trail-A-Sled Inc., which made the Scorpion snowmobiles, was founded in 1959 by Glen Gutzman, Eugene Harrison and his son Richard. Their story is detailed at www.trailasled.com.
Randy Harrison is an organizer of the Scorpion Homecoming, which partners with the Cuyuna Range Chamber of Commerce and its ice fishing contest on Serpent Lake.
"It's an intersection of area history and family history," Harrison said of the business that his father and grandfather helped create. There was a time when the family members barely knew about the Scorpion's legacy. When the Glenwood Chamber of Commerce called wondering if his father would speak at a vintage snowmobile gathering to feature the Scorpion, Harrison said his mom thought it was a crank call. When they went to the event, they were stunned to see the preserved Scorpions lined up on a stage.
"Our jaws dropped," Harrison said. "My father teared up. We could not believe people still cared about these machines."
They learned people were making a living selling Scorpion parts to a vintage snowmobile market. People suggested a reunion and Harrison talked to the Cuyuna Range Chamber for the event. The first year attracted about 500 people.
"I could not believe it," Harrison said. "It's not just forgotten, it's cherished in certain quarters."
Steve Pierce from Cohasset is CEO of the Antique Snowmobile Society, an organization with an interesting acronym, which the group puts to good use on buttons. The society had a detailed display at the Scorpion Homecoming, including a photo of Gov. Tim Pawlenty on one of the home-grown sleds and vintage photos of actor Chuck Connors, who was part of Scorpion's marketing efforts.
"It's wonderful - how could it be any better," Pierce said of the gathering. "It's a Scorpion celebration."
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
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