The First Snowmobile
The Sierra Snow Conqueror
Introduction
After over 40 years of off and on-again researching “snowmobile
history”, the time has come to publish my findings. This is my
opinion of who invented the first snowmobile. In snowmobile history
circles it is argued often and discussed many times who invented the
first snowmobile. After reading below I am sure it will continue.
However, if will give some to least ponder it and get Amos Lane some
credit if nothing else.
The Spark
A lifelong snowmobile nut I knew enough about snowmobile history to
be dangerous, but I never really dwelled on who made or invented the
first one until one day in a barber shop in Marysville, California
(where I lived at the time) in February 1983. There was an old guy
chewing fat with the barber about the Lane family (I never heard of
them being fresh from Michigan). The Lanes were well known before
and just after the turn of the last century east of the Sutter
Buttes and west of Reno. They talked about the most famous Lane,
Amos. As the conversation went on the elderly customer mentioned
Amos even invented the snowmobile. What I thought! Now you got my
attention because I knew names like Bombardier, Bosak, Eliason,
Hetteen, and Johnson; companies such as Lombard and Phoenix. So, it
begins …
What is a
Snowmobile
To me a snowmobile is part of the Over-The-Snow (OSV) family of
vehicles. It is not a Crawler (Tractor Family) like those invented
in the mid-late 1800s; a Steam Locomotive adapted for uses like log
hauling and etc.; a snow-plane; or a human powered bicycle or other
similar contraption with studs or tracks. A snowmobile is a machine
designed to be specifically used for the purpose of moving humans,
equipment, and food that uses non-human power to drive a track(s)
for high flotation over snow with skis for steering.
Requirements
To invent and build the first snowmobile logic dictates four things:
1. Mechanical knowledge whether from formal education or the school
of hard knocks. 2. There must be a need for it. 3. Access to money
in some fashion. 4. Technology, at the time, had to make it possible
to build such a machine.
Here comes
Amos Lane
Amos Lane was born in 1862 in rural Yuba County California near
Marysville. Beautiful part of the country, to the west you could see
the Sutter Buttes, then beyond the Coastal Mountains; to the east
the foothills and then the Sierra Nevada Mountains hiding Tahoe and
Reno. Amos was a Native Son of the Golden West. He grew up on the
family farm, when things broke, you fixed them. He was good at it
and the wheels in his mind started turning, how could things be
better? How can we do tasks easier? He soon got a reputation as a
young man in a hurry, he was going places.
When Amos was twenty-two, he tired from raking
hay and pitchforking it into a wagon. While a strong and
conscientious person (a part-time constable) he was determined next
season to make the task easier and more efficient. He invented the
Four-Wheeled Horse Drawn Hay Rake.
Raking was still
needed to organize; however, loading the wagon was all on the horses
pulling the Hay Rake reduced human effort. Word quickly spread of
this amazing invention. Newspaper stories in the Sacramento and San
Franscisco dailies propagated across the land. His desire to build
and sell these went up in dust because of the 1885 Sacramento Valley
drought and grasshopper invasion. Not only his potential customers’
farms were hit hard, his just shy of two hundred acres was
decimated. It did not help either that word on the streets steam
mechanical harvesting equipment from the Midwest was making its way
west.
The word steam would come back to haunt Amos at
times during his life.
It was tough to find work in the area, gold
mining was nearly spent and area farms almost non-existent because
of the drought. He went back to being a Constable. He had to, his
young wife Alice was with child.
Being a Constable worried Alice, it was
dangerous with Tin Pans coming into Marysville, the first real city
down from the Sierra Nevada Foothills in the area on what is now
California Highway 20. Getting drunk at times on watered-down liquor
only made things worse when Tin Pans realized what they were paying
for. Amongst the other things happening on the streets with the
ladies. Amos agreed it was time for a change. He saw an opening
running a Livery Stable, a position that was a great match with his
skills from the farm, in the Truckee and Sierraville areas taking
care of horses, equipment, and shuttling people (many times
tourists) and supplies around Truckee, Tahoe, Donner Lake, and
Sierraville. He made his case and soon hired in.
Early on, an odd day off was too far to travel
to Marysville and back in a single day. He went on short trips
exploring. One day to nearby Donner Lake “where thar be a Steamer”
because he wanted to learn about steam power. As the year went on it
did not take Amos long to realize that looking at the snowcapped
Sierras from his home in the Sacramento Valley to being in it for
real in Truckee was the extreme of two ends. Once it started snowing
and snowing and snowing from mid-fall to late spring it was a
challenge every day to get around via horse and buckboard let alone
walking. There had to be a better way. He thought about the Donner
Lake Steamer. If you can travel via steam on rail and water. Why not
snow?
Immediately he started designing and planning a
new way to traverse snow. It would be revolutionary and could move
more people and supplies without labor intensive and often finicky
horses. There is plenty of water and wood for steam engines in the
Truckee area, which is an understatement. He knew in time, he could
pull it off, this would really take care of his family and bring him
fame.
Saving money and acquiring materials took time,
but Amos kept at it. He learned about trial and error with the horse
drawn rake. Not to go full into something right away. He made a
First test article, a Velocipede, hand-powered, Sleigh in
Sierraville. He called it the Snow Boat. Tested it in late1889 over
five-foot of loose snow It worked! It was the talk of the area and
all the way down to Marysville and soon beyond. It caught the eye of
a local wealthy mill owner named George Schaffer. Mr. Schaffer
realized the increase in volume to get logs to his mill that was not
being fully utilized to capacity meant dollars. He provided some,
not all, capital for Amos to proceed to the next level. His dream of
a full-size steam powered sleigh was now within reach.
Amos slowly chipped away at his creation as
time and what money he had allowed while being made at Reid’s
Blacksmith Shop. Bought a used steam engine and boiler from Aitken
Coal Supply in Reno. He had Fulton Iron Works in San Francisco make
metal parts that he did not have the capability to produce. Along
the way he named it The Sierra Snow Conqueror. It was a fitting
name. He named the sleigh that would be pulled behind "Tow Boat".
It was now into 1891, Lane needed money in
addition to Mr. Schaffer’s to keep the project moving forward. His
luck changed again! You ever hear about the Donner Party and the
story about Mrs. Franklin Graves hiding her money, a lot of money,
three days before she died of cold and starvation. Later it became a
hidden treasure that no one could find. Well to make a long story
short in May 1891, two men contracted Amos to take them to the upper
part of Donner Lake. Amos invited a friend Edward Reynolds (a miner)
to go with them. On the way Reynolds left the wagon and climbed a
hill to look for quartz (you find quartz, good chance some gold
would be nearby). He noticed a large tree that had recently fallen
from high winds and the soil scared from a recent logging operation
a couple of years earlier. Reynolds then noticed the soil around the
fallen tree heaved up from the roots along with disturbed soil from
the logging operation was near it; he walked over and found some old
coins that in the end were part of the Donner treasure. He quickly
took Amos into his confidence knowing Amos was not only his friend,
but his ticket to go back and forth to a very rugged area for
access. They quickly took the two men (who were clueless) back to
Truckee. The picture is Reynolds and Lane going over what they
gathered up for the day on one of the trips back.
About half of
Graves’ money was found. Did she have two caches? Many believe so,
so much even the popular TV Show “Expedition Unknown” host Josh
Gates went looking for it recently.
After Reynolds and Lane gathered all the
treasure they could find, Amos’ Livery Stable was booming and
continued to do so. People wanted to see where the treasure was
located and the lure that they could find more loomed large. Pardon
the pun, but Amos thought it would be full steam ahead with new cash
of his own along with Schaffer’s money, with luck, he could be ready
for late 1891-1892 testing.
However, as bad luck would have it again,
things went sideways quickly. In just over a month word got to Mr.
William Graves, son of Mrs. Graves, who started a formal request on
behalf of the Graves family for their money back. Amos pressed on
the best he could despite the mounting legal issues and
distractions.
Late 1891 came and Fulton Iron Works finished
Amos’ order. In early 1892 the big day came. Unfortunately, Lane’s
Snow Conqueror did not work as well in practice as it did on paper
or Amos’ mind. It was too heavy and terribly slow. Schaffer saw this
and pulled his funding of it anymore. Still, it worked. Remember the
Wright Brothers first flight was only 12 seconds and traveled a
mere120 feet; however, it is widely accepted as the first powered
flight thus the first airplane. Amos, without knowing what he did,
invented the first snowmobile. Lane put the project on hold until he
could find more capital and wanted to make a substantial change for
the next time test. The Conqueror would be powered by a lighter
vapor engine with a better transmission of power to the tracks
instead of the heavy steam engine drastically reducing weight.
Then in late-spring 1892 Lane and Reynolds were
accused of dreaming the whole finding he Donner Treasure up because
Lane’s business was slow and needed money to finish the Snow
Conqueror. Fingers started pointing everywhere. The person making
the claim wished to remain nameless to the public did not help Amos
to defend himself. One thing positive did happen: Along the last
couple of years Amos got famous and his knowledge of using steam to
power things not on rails or water was well-known in the Reno and
Sacramento areas.
Along with the accusation legal matters started
piling up. Amos, who was thought not to have the money or know how
on his own to deal with such complex issues just wanted to get away
from Truckee. He shelfed the Snow Conqueror with the hope of
revisiting it one day. An opportunity arose and he took it using his
skills to build a Steam Powered Clock on the Amadee Geyser (every 38
seconds) in Amadee, California. The town also wanted a Steamer for
nearby Honey Lake for the great number of tourists they hoped for.
Amadee is on the east side of the Sierras about seventy miles NNW of
Reno. He got what he wanted and Amadee is out in the middle of
nowhere away from Truckee. He used parts from Snow Conqueror and
went to Donner Lake to get some more off the abandoned Steamer
Comet. Amadee folks were excited this would be the only clock of its
kind in the world and people would come to see it. Stay in the
hotels and eat in their restaurants. Also, enjoy the beautiful
distant views of the Mountains out on Lake Honey.
Just as the drought and grasshopper invasion of
1885 and Donner Party treasure issue Amos was unlucky at times. Amos
finished the clock in November 1892. It worked great and in early
1883 he arranged for the abandoned Donner Lake Steamer Comet be
moved and it was to Honey Lake. However, in May 1893 a crack opened
near the clock and the geyser was no longer. Just a little steam and
hot water barely bubbling out. Fingers started pointing at Amos
again and of course he did not want to hang around to finish the
Honey Lake Steamer. Now the need was to really get away from it all,
again.
He picked a good place, moved to Battle
Mountain in central Nevada and laid low. There he dreamed of the
Snow Conqueror and building many. There was a real need for it. A
need for shuttling people, supplies, and hauling raw materials in
deep snow fast and efficiently. He just could not get there for a
myriad of reasons. Soon, his heart was not in it anymore and he
permanently abandoned the Snow Conqueror project for good.
After healing his wounds Amos left Battle
Mountain in the summer of 1894 very quickly and moved to Lassen
County. His mail soon piled up and the Battle Mountain Post Office
in late summer tried to find his whereabouts, to no avail. After a
couple of years, he was back in Marysville for good. He was heavily
involved in city projects, forming private companies providing
capital, and still inventing large scale items such as a big bucket
excavator using a gasoline engine in 1907. Amos kept off the radar
with what wealth he did have in the late1880s and 1890s. One company
he invested $5,000 and became a managing partner. Of note, $5,000 at
that time is worth $185,000 today.
Sadly, Amos Lane passed away in late 1908 from
Pneumonia. In 1941, Amos’ wife, Alice, was interviewed by L Eichler
a famous Northern California personality and guest newspaper
commenter. Part of the interview she spoke about the Snow Conqueror
and other inventions. Amos was years and decades ahead of people and
companies that patented their version, honestly not knowing Amos at
all, of his creations. She felt Amos never got his due. I tried for
a long time to find any of Amos and Linda’s direct relatives to
interview. Alice died in 1953 at 88 years old. Amos and Linda had
four children who had a total of two grandchildren who had no
children from what I could find. Sadly, they are all gone except
very distant relatives that most likely have no knowledge of Amos’
dealings or who he even was.
Closing
Amos Lane has never been in a conversation with the great snowmobile
inventors. At least L Eichler acknowledges that through his research
the Snow Conqueror did work, poorly, but it did. If anything, now
people will at least know who Amos Lane was. If only he did not have
bad luck at times, a little was self-inflicted.
As far as Lane’s Snow Conqueror was it the first what we know as a real snowmobile? Yes, he was eight years ahead of the Lombard and Phoenix Log Haulers (OSVs) and decades ahead of what we refer to when seeing a person snowmobile.
Dedication
In memory of Amos and Linda Lane; every snowmobiler out there who
has passion for the sport.
Special
Mention
Wish to thank the person (unknown) in the Marysville barber shop for
starting me on really learning about snowmobile history. I have
genuinely enjoyed it and learned so much about different
snowmobiles, OSVs, racing, and sled history along the way from so
many great people whether in person or reading or viewing their
works. Listing all of them would take volumes but some deserve
special mention like Professor Bud Knapp, John McGuirk, Bill Vint,
Jim Beilke, C. J. Ramstad, Tom VanDyken, Hal Armstrong, Larry
Preston, Pierre Pellerin, Edgar Hetteen, Phil Mickelson, Jon
Bertolino, Larry Jorgensen, Steve Landon, Charlie and Marylin
Vallier at the Top of the Lake Snowmobile Museum, Guy Pepin from
Valcourt, Jeffrey Rodengen, Richard Hubbard, Ronn Hetteen, Mike
Dapper, L. Allister Ingham and his family. Their passion and deep
knowledge for snowmobiles was (those who RIP) and are (still living)
something I highly respect.
End Notes
Again, in over 40 years, many times getting sidetracked with other
snowmobile and motorcycle projects and life in general I wish to
thank the following people and newspapers in my research on Amos
Lane, the Donner Party, and Amadee Clock: Donner Memorial State
Museum, Elmore Bulletin Rocky Bar ID, Eureka Weekly Sentinel Nevada,
G Erberich, Grass Valley Daily Union, Josh Gates, Library of
Congress, Los Angeles Herald, Marysville County Clerk, Marysville
Daily Appeal, Pacific Rural Press, Pittsburg Dispatch PA, Placer
Herald, Sacramento Daily Record Union, Seattle Daily
Post-Intelligencer, St. Landry Democrat LA, T Purdy, The Central
Nevadan, The Evening Star Washington DC, The Evening World NYC, The
Morning Call San Francisco, The Pioche Weekly Record, The Silver
Sate Unionville NV, The Wichita Daily Eagle, University of
California Riverside Center for Bibliographical Studies and
Research, and Wood River Times Hailey, Idaho.