A rare machine makes its way back home

Gatzke resident, Randy Larson, has been collecting and remodeling snowmobiles for over 10 years. He says it’s a fun hobby of his that he likes to do in his free time. One day, a fellow collector, and work friend of Randy’s, told him about this one particular snowmobile. Randy was very interested in the machine, and bought it in hopes of fixing it up and entering it in to snowmobile shows. “It’s a very rare model,” Randy explained. The machine is a ‘67 Polaris Sno-King that was designed for Messelt’s Service Station in Roseau. At the time, an undecided amount was produced by Polaris. The estimated number of machines that were manufactured ended up to be 25. Randy said he knows of four or five that are still around today.

Randy was at a snowmobile show when he happened to run into fellow Gatzke resident, Ed Monson. They started talking about the snowmobile Randy had purchased. It was a rare machine that Randy knew Ed would have some interest in. The more they talked, the more interesting the conversation got.

It just so happens that Ed had bought the exact same model brand new in 1967 and had given the machine to his son Tom, who has since passed away. The more they talked about Randy’s snowmobile, the more similarities they found in Ed’s old machine that he had sold many years ago. Randy brought up how this particular snowmobile had marks where stickers were put on the dash. Ed described that Tom had put stickers on the dash of his, too. Randy explained the sticker to Ed and it was one that wouldn’t have been put there by anyone else. 

It was discovered that Randy had Tom Monson’s old snowmobile. It had made its way back to the Gatzke area. 

Greg Monson, Tom’s brother, says, “My dad bought it brand new from Messelt’s Service Station in the fall of 1967. I remember being pretty bummed when he sold it. I thought I would never see it again.” He remembers a story about his dad and his brother putting wheels under the skis so they could drive it around during the summer time. 

Once the realization set in for Randy that he had the Monson’s old sled, he knew it was one he had to remodel. He started working on it and put that machine at the top of his priority list to restore. He said a machine becomes special to him when he knows there is a story behind it. “I become motivated to fix it up,” he added. 

Randy has since restored Ed’s old snowmobile and added an extreme amount of detail. Once the snowmobile was finished, Randy threw a little party in Tom’s honor so the Monson family could be reacquainted with the machine. It was a bittersweet day filled with many emotions! 

“When I saw Randy’s sled, I was amazed. He did an outstanding job on the restoration. Even my dad said it had never looked that nice, even when he bought it back in ’67,” said Greg. “I’m glad how things worked out,” he smiled. 

More photos on back page.