Jon Horton - Do you know what a sledneck is?
Do you know what a sledneck is?
It's an interesting linguistic compound which plays on the words "sled" and "redneck." I say interesting because it is not only a clever combination of the two terms, it also points to one of the growing social distinctions currently common in Jackson Hole.
It used to be that the Rockefellers and other of that class mixed with the locals with no snobbery exhibited by the former and no deference shown by the latter. The social playing field was pretty level. Recently, over the last twenty years or so, that has changed and the nouveaux riches (called "Patagonia People" by the locals and easily identified by their expensive casual clothing and long noses) appear to be intent on weeding out the unreconstructed natives in order to bring a little "class" to the neighborhood. The resulting tensions color the language, as well as other things, but it results in the reverse snobbery that accounts for words like "sledneck" and bumper stickers on pickups that read "Die Yuppie Scum!" The working guys don't miss many opportunities to tweak those long noses when they get a chance.
I wrote a couple of columns last winter which featured one of my boyhood heroes, a little guy named Banty Bowlsby. He was a native genius who made many innovative things, one of them being a primitive snow machine. He cut a large hole in a toboggan and then mated it with some conveyor belting and a cannibalized motorcycle to create the machine-and it worked! He also invented the first wax less skis by melting phonograph records and pouring the molten mess on the bottoms of a set of boards. Slim Lawrence was another of Jackson's mechanical geniuses and he had his own version of a snow machine, shown here with his wife Verda aboard.
In order to understand what prompted Banty and other to invent these things, you have to have some idea of what it was like in the old days.
When I was a kid we were going through a wet weather cycle and the winters were typified by lots of snow and lots of wind. For instance, I remember when the Togwotee pass road used to be a channel cut through the snow by rotary plows and the cut was at least ten feet high on each side. Also, and you may not believe this but there are pictures to document it, in the spring of 1948 the snow was a little below the cross arms of the telephone poles on Easter Sunday-in April! The photo here shows men inspecting a snow slide which has crossed the Togwotee highway's plowed route and should give you some idea of what past winters could be like.
When you have weather like that, winter can get to be a prison and people like Banty Bowlsby were always working on ideas to flee that prison. The snow machine has proven to be the most popular path to escape. And even though the winters are more moderate now that urge to fly across the snow has proven to be the basis for a whole recreational industry. Snow machines have liberated many from the prison of winter-and swelled the pockets of the folks who provide the myriad services which support the craze.
Jackson is a snowmachiner's paradise for many reasons. Other places have deep snow and some places have beautiful mountains to go with the deep snow. But the same things which draw folks here in the summer draw them in the winter: Views of the Tetons, and the wildlife of the Yellowstone ecosystem.
There are many vendors of snowmobile tours in the Jackson Hole area and the Yellow Pages of the local phone book list a little over thirty businesses whose job is to take folks out onto the snow and into the wilderness. This online magazine includes information on several of the very best providers of snowmobile tours so be sure to take a look at their ads.
And there is no easier way to see the back country of Jackson Hole. At other times of the year vehicle travel in the national parks and on the national forests are limited mostly to the few roads but in winter the access is virtually unlimited. The advent of winter means access to thousands of square miles of wilderness that is normally accessible only by foot the rest of the year. The deep snow also means that the animals are concentrated on the wintering grounds and are easily viewed by winter visitors.
But if your preference is passively sitting in a lawn chair and drinking beer while watching others trying to break their necks, you will want to visit during our famous hill climb competition. It takes place later in the year, after the skiers have abandoned the Snow King ski resort on the south edge of town, and it has the exciting air that accompanies all speed events. Competitors come from all over the world to attack the ski hill, which is so steep at the top that you can stick your arm straight out in front of you and touch the side of the mountain. The wrecks on this part of the course are spectacular and the modified machines being flown by the racers are mean, lean, and loud. It is one of those occasions when the Patagonia People's long noses get really out of joint what with all the beer, bubbas, loud machines and loud clothing. It's great.
But on the other end of the spectrum, if quietly viewing wild animals is what makes your heart go pitty pat, you are in real luck. Besides the winter tours to Yellowstone and its concentrated herds of elk and buffalo, there is the National Elk Feeding Ground just north of town. You can take a sled of another kind out onto the refuge where you will be able to view about ten thousand elk at very close quarters - from a distance of only a few feet, as a matter of fact. The tours depart from the National Museum of Wildlife Art about two miles north of town, on the way to Yellowstone.
And if you are allergic to horses, or the machines whose power is rated in horses, there are a dozen or so businesses whose specialty is dog sled tours of the back country. If you time your visit just right you can come when our famous 10-day sled dog race is held. It is not yet as famous as the Iditarod but its popularity is increasing and the prize money attracts some of the sport's very best racers.
All in all, there is a lot of good sledding to be had locally, whatever your taste may be.
-Jon Horton
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