BINGHAM — Zipping around the field Saturday at North Country Rivers in Bingham were not the Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo, Polaris or Yamaha snowmobiles commonly seen on Maine’s trails.
Instead, lovers of Ford Model T snowmobiles — an adaption of the classic American car — were showing off their antique vehicles during the Model T Ford Snowmobile Club’s 25th annual meet.
“People show up with the family and look at them, talk to people, and just kind of hang out,” Tim Snow, the club president, said.
The weekend marked the third year the club has held its annual meet at North Country Rivers, which has a field airstrip.
Snow of Plympton, Massachusetts, said the meet is generally held in different places, and he expects next year’s event will be somewhere else in the Northeast.
The club, which Snow said now has 62 members, most of whom live in New England and New York, is dedicated to the history, documentation, preservation and use of the Model T Ford snowmobile, according to its website.

Bill Filbeck of Minot, left, watches Saturday as his father-in-law, Keith Lindstrom of Oxford, starts a Ford Model T snowmobile at the Model T Ford Snowmobile Club’s 25th annual meet at North Country Rivers in Bingham. At right: Tim Snow of Plympton, Massachusetts, the club’s president. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel
The Model T revolutionized the auto industry when Henry Ford began producing the cars in 1908. The history of how the vehicles came to be used as snowmobiles dates back nearly as far.
Virgil White, who was a Ford dealer in Ossipee, New Hampshire, built his first snowmobile attachment for a Model T in 1913 and received a patent in 1917, according to a brief history published on the club’s website. The attachment went on the market in 1922, available only through Ford dealers.
The design converted a Ford automobile into a snowmobile by replacing wheels on the front with skis and adding tracks in the rear.
“The Snowmobile became an indispensable convenience for the person requiring rapid, dependable transport in all kinds of weather,” according to the website. “Country doctors and rural mail carriers were the largest users of this type of vehicle. Other customers of the manufactured Snowmobile included public utility companies, lumber companies, traveling salesmen, fire departments, school bus and taxi drivers, undertakers, grocers, milkmen, truckers and cranberry growers.”

Pete Lauridsen, the vice president of the Model T Ford Snowmobile Club, looks under the hood Saturday of his Ford Model T snowmobile during the club’s 25th annual meet at North Country Rivers in Bingham. Lauridsen of New London, New Hampshire, says he installed fresh V-8 engine in December. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel
More than a dozen Model T snowmobiles were on display Saturday.
Pete Lauridsen of New London, New Hampshire, had a 1934 vehicle that he said was originally a Doodlebug — essentially a homemade tractor. Lauridsen said he installed a fresh V-8 engine in December.
“I’ve used this a lot,” Lauridsen said over the hum of the engine, as he drove laps around the field airstrip.
Adam Pearsall of upstate New York had a 38-inch-wide snowmobile, which he said was used as a border patrol vehicle. It was his first time attending the annual meet, and Pearsall received help to get his snowmobile running.
“They’re super helpful,” he said of the group.

Carter Iarusso, left, Cardell Iarusso, Sebastian Iarusso and their grandfather, Charles Stewart, stand Saturday with the Ford Model T snowmobile they built. The four, all of Altamont, New York, are attending the Model T Ford Snowmobile Club’s 25th annual meet at North Country Rivers in Bingham. Stewart says he and family members collected parts for about 20 years, and it took two or three years to assemble the snowmobile. The body is at least 100 years old, Stewart says. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel
Sebastian Iarusso of Altamont, New York, was showing off a snowmobile he assembled with his family.
“This is really the first time we’ve gotten to try it ever, too,” he said. “We probably put 15 miles on it yesterday, just driving it around.”
Iarusso’s grandfather, Charles Stewart, also of Altamont, New York, said he had been gathering parts for the snowmobile about 20 years, and it took two or three years to assemble. Some parts, including the skis, were originals, he said.
“As the boys got older, they started going with me to the snowmobile meets,” Stewart said. “And then, they started helping me with this.”
Snow said he was first a Model T hobbyist and then came across the snowmobiles online. He found an event in New Hampshire to learn more, and the rest is history, he said.
“I made one that year,” Snow said. “And I became a member. Then, I made another one. And then, I made another one.”
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