Snowmobile group announces scholarship to honor "Mr. Snowmobile" Hank Lindsey

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 16, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Henry "Hank" Lindsey was a legend among Minnesota snowmobilers. His relentless pursuits to broaden the recreational snowmobiling industry will be long remembered by those now benefiting from his work, and even earned him the nickname "Mr. Snowmobile" among friends and colleagues.

Lindsey died in December, leaving behind his snowmobiling legacy and a gaping hole in the sport's leadership, but his name will not be forgotten.

To honor him, the members of Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association's Region I voted at their spring meeting to establish a small engine scholarship in Lindsey's name and to rename the Blue Ox multi-purpose trail east of Lake Bemidji in honor of him as well.

The scholarship in small engine repair is to honor the many years he sold, fixed and rode snowmobiles, according to Lindsey's widow, Eileen. And the portion of the Blue Ox trail between Bemidji and Funkley, about half of the trail that extends to International Falls, will be renamed this fall the Hank Lindsey Blue Ox trail. The other half of the trail lies with MnUSA's Region II boundaries, and that region is still considering the name change, Lindsey said.

Lindsey was a lifelong member of the snowmobiling subculture, even during the days when snowmobiles were not known for their reliability.

"He would ride for about 10 miles and then fix them for about 10 hours," Lindsey said.

Shortly after moving to Bemidji in 1973, he helped found the local North Country Snowmobiling Club and began fighting for more snowmobiling trails. In addition, Lindsey was also a charter member of MnUSA, which is now recognizing him for his efforts.

Since Lindsey's death in December there has been a gaping hole in the leadership of the sport, according to local and statewide snowmobiling aficionados. He was a leader, if not the leader, in the local snowmobiling club as well as in MnUSA regional committee, and even helped write the original bylaws of the statewide group.

He, almost single-handedly, secured the return of a portion of charitable gambling proceeds for snowmobile trail maintenance and repair funds statewide, according to Bob King, a former state MnUSA president and longtime friend of Lindsey's. As a result, there are probably few trails in the state that have not benefited some from that single action.

"He was one of the few people who legitimately touched everybody who snowmobiles in Minnesota," King said. "There is hardly a trail to ride on (in Minnesota) that doesn't have some money in it from pull tabs."

However, he was just as active at the local level. Lindsey often could be found in the Twin Cities lobbying the Legislature about snowmobiling issues, and yet he still had time to be the North Country Snowmobiling Club's general manager, gambling manager and secretary all at once. Since his death, the club has hired separate people to serve as the gambling manager and the general manager, and is considering hiring another person to be the club's secretary.

"Hank could be found on Christmas Day, underneath a (broken) groomer, digging out broken metal pieces and putting in new ones as well as lobbying in St. Paul the next day," said Dick Lueben, current president of the North Country Snowmobiling Club. "He was active in all phases of the club's work and management."

The Blue Ox Trail will officially change names sometime this fall when a committee from the North Country Snowmobiling Club, led by Eileen Lindsey, will unveil two large wooden signs that will mark each end of the new Hank Lindsey Blue Ox Trail. No specific date has been identified as to when that will happen.

"You knew his work wasn't for the betterment of Hank. It was for the betterment of MnUSA," King said, who mentioned that he and several other people tried to get Lindsey inducted into the International Snowmobiling Hall of Fame last year. Lindsey was turned down, but it will not stop King and the others from nominating him again, he said.

"He deserves anything they can come up with -- anything to keep his name out there and remind us of what he did for everybody," he said.

Lueben, who worked as a local club officer with Lindsey for several years, said, "He certainly was totally involved, totally interested and totally dedicated. What started as a hobby, turned into a lifelong interest, and his capabilities have been surely missed since last December."

He was also a member of the Blackduck Snowmobile Club and when the Leech Lake Riders Club of Walker was founded in the fall of 1987, Lindsey was a mentor to the club's leaders.

"Those club members who worked with him will always remember Hank Lindsey for his relentless work habits for MnUSA and snowmobiling," stated an article, written by LLRC member Neil Jacobson, about Lindsey in a recent MnUSA magazine.

"He didn't need a lot of sleep. A lot of the time he would get up at 3 or 4 in the morning and sit in the bath tub working (on snowmobile issues)," his wife said about his working habits. "It was all for the good of the snowmobiling. It was his whole life."