HISTORY

Our interest in maintaining snowmobile trails goes back to 1972 when Jim Lord and Ernie Rice used their own sleds with wooden makeshift drags and still got the job done.  Back then, popular maintained trails went to the Four Seasons on Torsey Lake and Vienna Mountain. The attractions at Four Seasons were their food, beverages and a couple of nice warm fireplaces. After a few years, Jim, Ernie, and Bill Wadleigh made up the volunteers who maintained and dragged the local trails.  Belgrade Draggin’ Masters was established in 1990, thanks to Jim.  He worked for Parks and Recreation so had a good idea of what would be required of a snowmobile club.  After meeting a couple of times to be sure we would have enough interest to support the required functions, we filed the paperwork and here we are today.

 

Jim was our first president for two years with Ernie as vice president, and then served as treasurer while Ernie took the president’s position. After several years, Llewellyn Ashland, who was on the Board, became president and Ernie was VP.  Lou served until his passing in 2016 when Larry Mare took over.  Ernie continued as VP.  Fred Cole is our long-time treasurer/secretary and handles that big pile of required paperwork and mailings, which is much more work than most realize.  Fred now has an assistant in Kathy Brown, who also took the job of secretary.  Ernie took over as president in 2019, and Dennis Lucas is Trailmaster with Amos Mare' assistant.  We have come a long way!

 

We now have 2 snowmobiles with hydraulic drags, 2 ATV with tracks and Hydraulic drags, 1 snowmobile with steel drag, a track truck, and miscellaneous equipment to maintain 43 miles of trails.  Our club members work diligently on trail maintenance, grooming, fundraising, etc.  Now we are getting a few new younger members finding their niche.  We have been very fortunate to have had great support from Bill Wadleigh and Kevin Hawes.  We also have had financial support and donations from local businesses.  These are some of the highlights that deserve recognition.

 

We are a working club – our only social events are our Club Cookout and our Landowner Thank You Supper in April.   

 

P.S. If you have information that should be added please contact Ernie (email ecirme@yahoo.com)

 

Ernie Rice President 2021