Carl eliason biography
Carl Eliason loved the outdoors in the winter but physical limitations motivated him to think of a new way to travel over the snow....
Carl Eliason | Wisconsin Historical Society
Feature Story
Celebrating Wisconsin Visionaries, Changemakers, and Storytellers
Carl Eliason | Wisconsin Historical Society
< Back
Ingenuity That Led to the Modern Snowmobile
Visionary | Carl Eliason | 1899 - 1979
Carl Eliason, inventor of the modern day snowmobile, stands next a snowmobile and the historic marker in Sayner.
- Courtesy of Vilas County Historical Museum
Carl Eliason loved the outdoors in the winter but physical limitations motivated him to think of a new way to travel over the snow.
One of the great innovators in snowmobiling, Carl Eliason as decades ahead of his time in as he dreamed of a vehicle capable of travel over the snow.
A Wisconsin visionary, his incredible ingenuity paid off when he developed the prototype of the modern snowmobile in 1924.
Eliason was born in 1899 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Ten years later, he moved with his family to Sayner, Wisconsin.
When he was young, Eliason was interested in hunting and trapping but since he was born with a chronic foot problem, it was difficult for him to check his trap line a