STOCKHOLM — When Kyle Anderson pulls up to the gas pumps in front of Anderson’s Store to refuel his Phantom, residents do a double take.

“What is that?” they ask.

Additional Photos

FASTER: The Phantom has an average speed of 55 miles per hour, but Kyle Anderson would like to develop it to reach a speed of 100 mph. Photo by Brenda Nasberg Jepson

The Phantom is a fully enclosed snowmobile with a heater, a CD player, a rearview TV monitor and an Indy 500 motor. It was cobbled together from parts Anderson found or made.

“If it’s your dream and you want to have some fun with it, you go for it,” said Anderson, 25. “I used whatever I could find — car parts, satellite dishes, sheets of bathroom tiles.”

Anderson started working on The Phantom years ago, building it at Anderson Auto Repair, in nearby New Sweden, where he works with his father.

It was a fitting birthplace for The Phantom, since his father, Dennis Anderson, has been turning out imaginative inventions — from a windmill to a “two-seater” snowmobile made from two sleds welded together — for years.

Locals say Kyle Anderson has been a tinkerer for a long time.

“I know Kyle is an inventive guy, too,” said 86-year-old Clyde Jepson of New Sweden, who came into Anderson’s Store for some homemade beans. “He has been doing this sort of thing since he was a kid. When I first saw The Phantom, I didn’t know what it was. It is unique, to say the least.”

Living in far northern Maine, the Swedes who settled the area in the 1870s have long been known for their ingenuity in making their own replacement parts for farm equipment — to save both time and money.

Fast-forward to the 21st century and that “make-do” attitude, combined with a fertile imagination, resulted in a space-age snowmobile that cost just $1,200 to construct.

Anderson began work on The Phantom in 2006. In addition to drawing on what he learned working with his father, Anderson took two years of auto body classes at Caribou Regional Applied Technology Center when he was in high school.

Mostly, however, it was Anderson’s imagination that was the real impetus behind creating The Phantom.

“I was thinking about the old game from PlayStation, ‘Spy Hunter,’ because I think it is cool, or a (Darth) Vader-mobile or Batman or 007. It fits all sorts of genres of movies, but I really wasn’t heading toward a specific movie,” Anderson said.

“It was just a self-imagining product. I ended up tying together bits and pieces, day by day. I would wonder, ‘How is this going to work?’ and ‘How am I going to make my doors?’ Finally it just came into play for me, and this is pretty much the rough draft.”

Even though Anderson thinks of The Phantom as a work in progress, local residents clearly are impressed with it. They often stop him to take a photo of the futuristic snow sled.

“He put a lot of time into it, I know that,” said Ryan Clark, 19, of New Sweden. “I saw it outside his shop for years. He’s got it together now. It’s a cool little rig.”

Fourteen-year-old Gunnar Bondeson, also of New Sweden, agreed. When he and his father, Sven, had to wait for Anderson to finish fueling The Phantom, he wasn’t sure what it was.

“It looks like the Batmobile of snowmobiles,” he said. “I think it would be cool to go for a ride in it. At least it would keep you warmer.”

While heating is one unusual aspect of the snowmobile, so are the double tracks, which allow the operator to turn on a dime. Another unique feature is the lighting. In addition to the trail lights, The Phantom has sidelights that illuminate the tree line. They are adjustable – both up and down and side to side.

While The Phantom operates at about 55 mph, he would like to get it up to 100 mph.

“That would be awesome,” he said. “A real zoom bullet.”

Other planned improvements include DeLorean-style doors and a Comet clutch.

Anderson has researched taking out a patent on The Phantom, but the price has been prohibitive. One company told him it would cost $8,000.

“I just don’t have the cash for that,” Anderson said. “I’d rather just keep doing my own thing and be the only one out there with a machine like this. It is the only one on the planet.”

Anderson did say he would welcome investors to help back him in the development and mass production of his invention.

Margaret Wardwell, 83, caught her first glimpse of The Phantom when she stopped by Anderson’s Store for ice cream.

“I think it’s just wonderful. People think that folks who invent things are away in big cities, but we have young people here who are smart and they know how to work hard,” said Wardwell, of Stockholm.

The locals, both young and old, would love to see The Phantom manufactured in an area with limited employment prospects.

“Very often when things are invented, it leads to a loss of jobs,” said Wardwell, “but if Kyle’s snowmobile goes into production, it could create some new jobs.”

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