Study finds snowmobiling important for North Country businesses

COLEBROOK, N.H. —Snowmobile clubs and their volunteers are being credited with helping smooth down snowfall after snowfall, and along with the snow, are the reason why $586 million is spent a year in New Hampshire each winter by riders.


It has been by all accounts a fabulous snowmobile season statewide, with the possible exception of a rough early January thaw.

Compared to last year, however, where there was only consistent snow in the north, it has been a return to a normal winter.

An economic study for the NH Snowmobile Association prepared yearly by Dr. Mark J. Okrant, and Dr. Daniel S. Lee of the Plymouth State University Institute of Studies and released this past fall shows the importance of snowmobiling to not only to sled dealers but restaurants, gas stations, hotels and jobs throughout the state.

But perhaps in the North Country, where the snow began to stick in November and continues as a mainstay for riders, is its impact felt the most.

Chris Gamache, who heads the state Trails Bureau, noted, "This is an industry in the state of New Hampshire that is run by volunteers. It is all funded by user fees by people who love their sport."

The money goes a long way in New Hampshire, too.

Registration monies go to the clubs to maintain and improve trails.

He gave an example of how the system is built. He pointed to nine miles of new trail which has been groomed this winter between Colebrook and Stewartstown by the Colebrook Ski-Bees.

In the summer and fall, the Ski-Bees took what was an abandoned, state-owned rail corridor and removed the rails and ties to allow for better grooming and snowmobiling.

Read more: http://www.wmur.com/escape-outside/Study-586M-spent-per-year-by-snowmobile-riders-in-NH/-/18282296/19330880/-/sy8ubnz/-/index.html#ixzz2NcwfrAXE

fshnski wrote:He gave an example of how the system is built. He pointed to nine miles of new trail which has been groomed this winter between Colebrook and Stewartstown by the Colebrook Ski-Bees.

Clever name..."Busy-as", or "C-B's" (Sea B's, or the US Navy's Construction Battalion).

Do you remember the movie "the Fighting Seabees"?

"WITH WILLING HEARTS AND SKILLFUL HANDS,
THE DIFFICULT WE DO AT ONCE,
THE IMPOSSIBLE TAKES A BIT LONGER
WITH COMPASSION FOR OTHERS
WE BUILD - WE FIGHT FOR PEACE WITH FREEDOM"
Seabee Memorial, Arlington, VA


Convinced that war was coming, the U.S. Navy realized that fighting in theaters halfway around the world would present new challenges in logistics and would require a vast infrastructure. Beginning in 1940 they began a program of building bases on far-flung Pacific island using civilian contractors. When the United States officially entered the war, the use of civilian labor had to stop. Under international law civilians were not permitted to resist enemy military attack. If they did they could be executed as guerrillas.

On December 28, 1941, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks (BUDOCKS), requested specific authority to activate, organize, and man a unique, very special organization that would support the Navy and Marines in remote locations and defend themselves if attacked — the Naval Construction Battalions. On January 5, 1942, he was given that authority and the original Battalions were formed at a new Naval base in Davisville, Rhode Island.


http://www.seabeesmuseum.com/History.html[center]

I've seen references to that movie, but only recently and never saw it.

Yup.

That "International Law" really worked wonders for every civilian in the Southwestern Pacific of WWII—and they weren't executed as guerillas. Men, women, children, Chinese, natives, Dutch, Philippino, American, Aussies, Brits—it didn't matter: you were executed if you were of no value to the Imperial Japanese military. The only mercy shown prisoners was by Japanese Army guards who had converted to Christianity. The largest Christian community in Japan was in the city of Nagasaki.

We lived just south of Davisville in Wickford, RI, and regularly drove past a huge CB sign, complete with a cartoon bee carrying a machine gun, while wearing the "Dixie Cup" hat, or "cover".



(I mean, a really huge sign!)

What a great insignia.

fshnski wrote:What a great insignia.

It is!



The Walt Disney version left out the machine-gun.



This is the sign as I remember it at Davisville, RI:

Thanks for sharing. I haven't seen that since I was a kid.

fshnski wrote:Thanks for sharing. I haven't seen that since I was a kid.

My memory of Davisville was of that huge sign—I wasn't disappointed by Google, when I found the above picture.

Since, as a kid, you surely didn't go out of your way to see that sign—at one time, were we neighbors?

Only if you lived in the sou' eastern part of Connecticut.