Above the large “New Wilderness Adventure” billboard at the south end of Cranberry Portage sits an unassuming, unofficial, weathered sign that reads “Bombardier Capital.”
The sign does not specify the capital of what – the world? Canada? The north? Regardless, there’s no doubt Cranberry Portage has been a hot spot for Bombardier enthusiasts, and the sign denotes hometown pride.
It has been years since dozens of Bombardiers first gathered on the shores of Lake Athapapuskow in Cranberry Portage for its annual Bombardier rally, and upwards of 100 people filled the local hall for supper after the adventure. But the machines have become a fixture in the community of less than 600 people, and a resurrection of the event is in the works.
Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Valcourt, Que., built the first Bombardier in 1936. The machine first made its way to Cranberry Portage in the early 1980s, nearly 50 years after its invention. At the time, the machines were not thought of as instruments of leisure, but rather strictly as workhorses, used in commercial fishing to haul fish from the lake to the train. Ted and Mary-Ann Playford had a line on one, as Ted’s father commercial fished at South Indian Lake.
Both outdoors enthusiasts, Mary-Ann had started to lose her hearing, which made snowmobiling a challenge.
“He got a notion because I had to give up snowmobiling because my hearing was being affected,” said Mary-Ann.
“The Bombardier was better than a snowmobile.”
It was the first Bombardier in Cranberry Portage, and it was an immediate hit. The wide-gauge machine – aptly named the B12 for the number of people it could seat – gave the pair the freedom to pack up friends and family and head onto the ice or into the bush, making it indispensible for winter adventures. An after-market wood stove was installed to keep its passengers cozy. It was accommodating for people of all ages, and became the centre of questions and stories.
“We get this Bombardier and we go out fishing with it loaded with people,” said Playford.
“My nephew and his wife came up – their baby was born in December and they were up at the beginning of February, and we go out fishing with the baby in the Bombardier. Some guys that were out on snowmobiles stopped to talk. One guy was standing at the side of the Bombardier, and every time a joke was told, or they were laughing, he’d slap the Bombardier. I’d say, ‘Please don’t do that, we have a baby sleeping in there, we don’t want them to wake up.’ He didn’t believe me, so I made him follow me around the driver’s door, so when we opened it the draught wouldn’t go through. He says, ‘Holy eff, they’ve got a baby in the Bombardier!’”
Playford said the general consensus at the time was the men thought the Bombardier was “all right, but you can’t travel like you can on the snowmobile.” Many believed it wouldn’t catch on as a leisure machine.
“But then women started saying ‘Hey, if we have a Bombardier, we can go, too. The kids can go, too.’ Our grandchildren were in the Bombardier from day one,” said Playford.
Nearly two decades later, the Playfords visited friends in Island Falls.
“They have a place out in the boondocks, and we were talking to them. He had a Bombardier, and this is when they were really catching on,” said Playford.
“He said it would be good if we could get some guys together, looking at me. I said, ‘Okay, if we get it going, you have to come with your Bombardier.’”
Cranberry Portage’s first Bombardier rally was held on March 6, 1999. The event saw 23 Bombardiers –
models dating from 1948 to 1981 – gather on Lake Athapapuskow, and 80 people turn out for the supper that followed, swapping stories and learning about each other’s machines.
The event took off from there and was held annually for the next 11 years, drawing people and machines from out of province and out of country including a group from Norway.
“These guys came all the way from Norway specifically to attend the rally. They have Bombardiers in Norway – they’re used to take people from point A to point B,” said Playford.
Playford relayed how when the group arrived, they were astounded at the freedom they had to drive the machines wherever they pleased. The visitors explained that Bombardier travel was strictly regulated in Norway.
“’You mean we can just drive here?’ they asked. ‘If you want to go over there you can just drive there?’”
Over the years the rally grew, with Playford sending out personal invitations to previous participants. Upwards of 50 Bombardiers took part toward the final years. The crews travelled around to different places each year – Millwater, the Cranberry Lakes, Peterson Lake – and enjoyed a fish fry at their destination, but Playford said those who took part cared less about seeing the sights and more about comparing their machines.
“It was one of the prime concerns – having the people, having those old machines show up and seeing what some of them had done to them … it would absolutely boggle your mind,” said Playford.
The final rally was held in 2011 as it had become difficult to find people to help organize the event. But while the days of the annual rally may have come to an end, Playford is planning a special one in early 2019 for her nephew’s retirement.
“We’re going to have one next winter. My nephew has his Bombardier and he’s never been to a rally. We’re going to put one together just for him – he will be
retired so he can pitch in and help.”
Playford’s passion for the machine and the event itself still shows. She has boxes and binders full of photos and research, stories from the events and pages of history of the Bombardier.
“It was always a fun time, even if the day was a tad chilly or it was snowing,” she said.
“Guys just enjoyed checking out the machines, telling their stories, comparing notes on this and that, relating some troubles and how they were solved. So for them, it was pretty well all Bombardiers. The women visited and got up on everyone’s news … There were the kids who enjoyed playing with each other and did forays into the bush for an adventure … It was a time of making new friends and spending time with those you made at the last rally.”
