Edgar Hetteen built the sport of snowmobiling from a grain-silo conveyor belt, an old Chevrolet bumper and other spare parts lying around his farm-equipment shop.
Mr. Hetteen, who died Saturday at age 90, was founder of Polaris Industries and Arctic Cat, two Minnesota companies that supply nearly all of the snowmobiles manufactured in the U.S.
But despite pioneering snowmobile design and founding enduring companies with billions of dollars in total sales, Mr. Hetteen didn't get rich off the snowmobile.
"He's considered by many people the father of the snowmobile," said Loren Anderson, president of the St. Germain, Wis.-based Snowmobile Hall of Fame. "But he had a temper and he walked away."
Mr. Hetteen grew up on a farm in Roseau, Minn., dropped out of school after eighth grade, and became proprietor of a machine shop, Hetteen Hoist and Derrick. The company manufactured hay choppers, pole setters and other farm equipment.
As a side project, some of his employees fooled around with motorized sleds. In 1954 they came up with a functioning model, made of spare parts and powered by a 10-horsepower engine. A skeptical Mr. Hetteen dubbed it "Screaming Lena," but the machine soon sold and the shop began producing new ones.
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