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Off the rails, snowmobile business booms

Snowmobiles are seen ready to sell in crates at Smith Marine in Old Forge. (Photo provided — Scott S. Thompson)
Snowmobiles are lined up at Stillwater Hotel on Stillwater Reservoir in this webcam photo. (Photo from www.oldforge.net)

To the editor:

Communities (other than mine, Beaver River) in the town of Webb are bustling with holiday traffic, and most of them are snowmobilers. In Big Moose, the Station Restaurant is busy, but where riders rely on the tracks, it’s a ghost town. Smith Marine, Big Moose Yamaha and Don’s Polaris are all flat-out whittling down their piles of crates to fill pre- and new sales for the holidays. Hospitality businesses have to know that the corridor would be a gold mine as a trail. For those who espouse shorter winters, that just means a longer bicycle season, but neither one works over rough terrain. The best trails in Old Forge are No. 5 and Uncas Road, the old rail bed, and closed roads like Moose River Plains. From an environmental point of view, how can you hurt it (unless it’s creosote from new ties)? Don’t wait for something to happen. Insist it happens now!

Another economic example: https://www.alleghenyfront.org/from-coal-town-to-trail-town.

Scott S. Thompson

Beaver River

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