Joseph Armand Bombardier
By; Nicholas Durst

Joseph Armand Bombardier was the grandfather of snowmobiling.  Joseph Armand Bombardier was born April 16, 1907 in Quebec, Canada to Alfred and Anna Bombardier (Armand).  Joseph Armand had a good childhood.  His parents were happily married. He grew up on a farm in a farming community as the oldest of eight children, four additional siblings died as children (Lacasse, 1988).  As a child he earned money for serving Catholic mass on Sundays. He went to church every Sunday with his family. Church kept him close to his family, later as was tradition in Quebec, Canada his father wanted Joseph as his oldest son to become a Catholic Priest.  Joseph Armand studied to be a priest in St. Charles, Canada, Barrel Mount, Canada, and finally Sherbrooke, Canada.   Joseph never wanted to be a priest (Lacasse, 1988).    He always liked machines and anything to do with mechanics.  His father let him work in their little machine shed on the farm.  Joseph was the farm mechanic if anything was ever broken, he fixed it.  Joseph was also responsible for several inventions on the farm to make life easier, including a water trap in the barn to get rid of the rats (Lacasse, 1988).    

2013 All Cat Show

On October 5, 2013 Country Cat in Sauk Centre, Minnesota
held the 4^th Annual “All Cat Show”. The days leading up to the
Country Cat annual open house were very wet to say the least. The forecast for
Saturday, the day of the All Cat Show showed steady rain. Dave Wanderscheid
quickly announced that he would make room inside for all the vintage sleds. The
indoor area worked out excellent for not only the sled owners, but the hundreds
of customers walking through to view the Vintage sleds. As it turned out I
believe the rain literally brought in more people to the open House as everything
from sleds, ATV, clothing, and parts were inside along with the Vintage show
sleds. Hey, it was too wet to do anything outside.

Thanks to the Wanderscheids for a very nice day and everyone
is looking to coming back for the 2014 Country Cat Open house next year on the
first Saturday of October.

West Yellowstone sits with a backdrop of natural skyscraper's stretching to touch Montana's Big Sky, each March this sleepy little town awakens just like her famous geysers for the World Snowmobile Expo which now features The Western States Vintage Snowmobile Association's Vintage Snowmobile Round-up.
For 21 years, countless snowmobile enthusiasts have flocked to West Yellowstone's World Expo to catch a glimpse of exciting new industry products. And now for the past 8 years, sled heads of all ages have also had the chance to relive the rich history of snowmobiling by experiencing an incredible display of Vintage and Antique sleds at this fantastic annual event.