We were enjoying a winter escape weekend at the Lake View Hotel in Gimli. The General Manager, Mike Laser and his staff treated us royally. This is not a paid announcement, just a comment. We were enjoying the fine dining with our gran-kids - both 9. I was regaling them with stories from when I was their age. The very site we were at was the former McGinnis Fish Company plant, owned by a colourful character and former mayor of Gimli, Hector McGinnis. We would build forts and ships out of the hundreds of fish boxes. It was the carefree days of our youth. The days when kids went out in the morning and didn’t come home until hungry or exhausted. Or both.

All the while that I had been speaking, the gran-kids’ eyes kept wandering to the multitude of snowmobilers outside. Their eyes followed the action with concentration born of desire to ride one of these snow conquerors.

My mind again drifted back to my own youth. I remember the first snow plane I ever saw - so called because it had an airplane engine fitted on the back of a steel frame and an airplane propeller. The frame rested on steel skis and was covered in canvas. Two people could fit inside this cocoon-like contraption. The government Fish Inspectors had one that they kept at Helgi (Highway) Helgeson’s garage on Third Avenue (where Ye Olde Ice Cream Parlour is now). We walked by the garage every day on our way to school, and one winter day we observed the men preparing to go out on Lake Winnipeg to check on the commercial fishermen. We stopped to watch, and while we ended up by being late for school, we were rewarded with the sight of this wasp-like creature from the forbidden lagoon taking flight. Well, almost taking flight.

Karl E. Lorch, a 19-year-old living in Spy Hill, Saskatchewan built and patented the Snow Plane in 1929. Although later models of the snow plane were reported to attain speeds of 90 mph, the design was initially sparked by necessity rather than recreation. The western prairie in Canada and the US is a remarkable sight any time of the year. However, winter snows presented hardships and isolation because most roads were impassable - left to be cleared by the spring thaw.

The advent of the snow plane was a great help in relieving the isolation – roads were no longer required. Now mail and babies could be delivered on time – this was not necessarily the order of priority - as well as other necessities of life. And people could get together and carry on important discussions, such as the state of NHL hockey. In particular the standings of The Toronto Maple Leafs.

Other manufacturers, including Bombardier, soon entered the market and provided their own snow plane designs, which supplemented and then replaced the use of horses to haul fish and supplies during the winter fishing season. I am grateful to Ben Holyk of the Riverton Holyks for sharing his picture of an early snow plane. As to my gran-kids, their comments were, “Great story Grandpa. Can we go for a ride in one? Now?”

Ken Kristjanson
March 2013