History

Ten Towns Snowmobile Clubs History

Ten town snowmobile club was established in 1971 by John Price (President), James Hall (VP), Dick Simons(Treasurer) and Betty Zeltwager as secretary. The group wanted to name itself Southern Tier Snowmobile
Club, but was beat out of this name by a club in Jamestown by four days.
The first club meeting was held above the police station in Canisteo, NY.
The club opened with 125 members which was sure to grow.

The club later bought a house and seven acres of land from Daryl and Joanne Dennis, located on County Route 71 in Jasper NY. They then gutted the home and rebuilt the house with donated materials from members
and local people. The club was equipped with a key slide door entry,
a sixteen foot tall fire place built by Jim Dineen. It featured a bar, pool
table, jukebox, and bands that played on weekends.

The Club House was always booming with lots of members, even
their children who enjoyed sled ridding and playing in the snow. Now with
350 members the club house was surrounded by lots of snowmobiles
waiting to ride to the next destination!

To raise money for the club to keep it running smoothly, the members
would arrange a raffle and raffle off a new snowmobile to a lucky winner!
The Club would organize poker and dice runs and even had euchre
tournaments. Club members volunteered their time to clear trails, clean
club house and bartend. The Club showed the members their appreciation
by having a game dinner once a month for the families to feast upon!

In addition to being an active member, John Price became and instructor
to teach a snowmobile safety course to children ages 10-16. John taught
these classes at Canisteo School.

Ten Towns Snowmobile Club also had its own rescue team. Many rescues were made. The team would bring food and fuel oil in by snowmobiles to
families that were snowed in.

Members of the old club say Ten Towns Club dissolved in 1985. The old
timers seem to think most of it was due to lack of snow and the invention of
the dirt bike, that could go places that snowmobiles couldn’t.

I’m sure if you were looking for a great time! Ten Towns Snowmobile Club
was the place to go!

Special thanks to John Price, Ben Ray, Betty Zeltwager and Pauline
Ashbaugh for the pictures and information you all have contributed.
It was my pleasure talking with all of you.

Ten Towns Snowmobile Inc. re-established again in 2004. Ron Bulson,
Tim Rollins and Dale Lamphier started meetings again. The officers were:
Bob Baker (President), Jeff Amidon (VP), Matt Rollins as (Treasurer). The
club adopted the old by-laws on 1-4-05.

In 2017 the club purchased located at 2516 Cornell Rd in Jasper where they have a groomer barn to house the trail signs, tools and groomers used for maintaining the state funded trails.

The club is responsible for maintaining and grooming 43 miles of trails.

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