Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Faculty Books 2007 Motorized Obsessions: Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine Paul R. Josephson Colby College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/facultybooks Part of the American Studies Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Leisure Studies Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Josephson, Paul R., "Motorized Obsessions: Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine" (2007). Faculty Books. 3. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/facultybooks/3 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Books by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. < MOTORIZED OBSESSIONS > This page intentionally left blank ĽĻMOTORIZEDMOTORIZED OBSESSIONSOBSESSIONS Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine Paul R. JOSEPhSON The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2007 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2007 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Josephson, Paul R. Motorized obsessions: life, liberty, and the small-bore engine / Paul R. Josephson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8018-8641-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8018-8641-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Small gasoline engines. 2. Internal combustion engines—History. I. Title. tj790.j67 2007 621.43—dc22 2006035459 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. < CONTENTS > Preface vii 1 Fordism in Outdoor Recreation 1 2 Elk-Snowmobile Syndrome 30 3 Internal Combustion Adventure 87 4 The Lunacy of Personal Watercraft 144 5 Small-Bore Engines around the Home and Garden 189 Appendix 217 Notes 221 Index 251 This page intentionally left blank < PREFACE > I began this book out of curiosity about the place of internal com- bustion engines in American society. I had in mind not the large engines in our automobiles but the small-bore engines that power gardening equipment and recreational machines. Like most Americans, I bought a lawn mower soon after buy- ing a house, and I took pride in creating a green carpet of lawn. Eventually I also bought a line trimmer to create perfect edges and to save time weeding. If you live in a neighborhood with lawns of any size, small or large, urban, suburban, or rural, you too are bound to see neighbors using gardening machines of various sorts to assist them in keeping their lawns beautiful. Some of them also buy ride-on mowers with snowplow attachments to remove ice and snow in the winter. Others purchase cultivators. And so on. I began to wonder how long these gardening and snow removal machines had been around, how they had evolved, how much Americans spend on them, and when local, state, and national gov- ernments began regulating them for safety, emissions, and noise. Moving to a small town in central Maine some years ago, I also noted small-bore engines increasingly used to power recreational vehicles: snowmobiles, jet skis (also known as personal watercraft, or PWCs), and those vehicles variously referred to as all-terrain, off-road, and off-highway vehicles (ATVs, ORVs, and OHVs; in what follows I generally call them ATVs). I considered their ubiq- uity in the forests, along the Atlantic coast, and on the myriad lakes created during the last ice age here in Maine. As a cross-country skier and a long-distance runner who has shared trails with snow- mobiles and ATVs, I pondered how the machine recreationists’ clubs organized their trail systems. I was amazed at the numbers of machine recreationists, their seasonal ubiquity, the joy they derive from their hobby, and above all the energy they devote to organiz- ing local clubs. My curiosity led me to this history of recreational vii machines and their central place in work and leisure in postwar America. ATVs, snowmobiles, and jet skis are beautiful machines. They come in a variety of jet-age colors. Their plastic cowlings indicate both aerodynamic effi ciency and high craftsmanship. Over the years their manufacturers have perfected their operation through improved suspension systems, quieter and more effi cient engines, and better transmissions. These high-powered, highly maneuver- able machines can, and do, go everywhere. They represent both world-class high technology and, at their most basic level, the simple grace of rudimentary machines: an engine for propulsion, a steering mechanism, suspension, and seats (although contempo- rary machines come with a variety of attachments and options like automobiles and such comforts as heated handgrips for snowmo- biles). These machines serve not only recreational ends but also utilitarian ones. Weekend gardeners attach winches, cultivators, and other devices to help them shift detritus into different piles and confi gurations. Utility companies employ them. Many hunt- ers and fi shers swear by them. When needed in emergencies, rec- reational machines serve law enforcement offi cers, game wardens, medical technicians, or private citizens needing to move sandbags to protect their homes from fl oodwaters. The ATV has gone to Iraq for use by American soldiers. Over the past three years I have had the opportunity to discuss the history of recreational machines with recreationists from all walks of life. Members of snowmobile, ATV, and jet ski clubs have talked with me and given me the opportunity to comprehend the joy of playing at high speed on these beautiful, fast, sleek machines. I now understand better their interests, motivations, and concerns, and why they react as they do to efforts to regulate their machines in terms of safety, emissions, noise, or access. Club members are almost without exception family oriented and interested in safe and responsible operation. A number of my acquaintances have machines and love them for play as well as for utility. I have had the honor to be the guest of the Polaris factory in Roseau, Minnesota, and the Bombardier factory in Valcourt, Quebec. From workers Preface viii on the assembly lines to the managers and owners, all take pride in the safe, exciting machines they build. I have talked with retail- ers, with environmentalists, and with state offi cials responsible for licensing and fees and for working with clubs to establish trails. I have spoken with people involved either directly or indirectly in recreational machining, in the medical profession, in consumer product safety organizations, and in state and federal agencies. Recreational machining has become a social and cultural insti- tution that stretches across North America, from coast to coast and from south to north. While some see recreational machining as a “redneck” sport, it is anything but. It includes Canadians and Americans of all classes and income levels, although not so many people of color. Every weekend North Americans hitch trailers to their cars and SUVs, load them up with jet skis, ATVs, and snowmobiles, fi ll them with the proper equipment of helmets, per- sonal fl otation devices, insignia shirts, pants, gloves, and boots, and spend hours and hours driving to parks, forests, fi elds, grasslands, lakes, rivers, and coasts in search of recreational nirvana. To write this story, I have consulted the growing documen- tary record of recreational machine history. I have read brochures, newspapers, and other documents from the manufacturers; such government documents as Environmental Protection Agency reports, regulatory decisions, executive orders, product recalls, and correspondence between and among offi cials and other concerned citizens; such medical journals as the Journal of Trauma and the New England Journal of Medicine; and scientifi c journals in which biologists, geologists, and others attempt to evaluate the impact of recreational machines on various ecosystems. After all, Americans and Canadians now own millions of machines and use them wher- ever they are permitted to use them in increasing numbers. What is their environmental impact? My research revealed a surprising number of environmental and public health issues concerning ATVs, snowmobiles, and jet skis that have not yet been treated systematically in one place. My simple curiosity about recreational machines gave way to con- cern about their environmental and public health effects, and also Preface ix about our nation’s failure to reach reasonable standards for reg- ulating these machines in terms of pollution, safety, and access policies. President Richard Nixon in 1972 issued an executive order stipulating study of recreational machines and policies concern- ing their use on federal land units, but federal offi cials have yet to achieve that goal over thirty years later. In fact, many managers in the National Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management remain igno- rant of the impact of recreational machines and have done little of what the law requires of them to limit that impact. They have not made any systematic study of the widely available data relating to that impact, nor have they responded promptly to the problems these data indicate. It has fallen to state governments—belatedly and with little funding—to work out with machine recreationists, their clubs, and manufacturers how and to what extent to regulate machine use; how to offer (and whether to require) training pro- grams; whether (and how) to implement licensing requirements and fees; whether to require helmet use; and how to establish and maintain the areas (usually trails) where recreationists may tread. For their part, manufacturers have apparently tried to limit, postpone, or avoid strict, formal regulation by working with govern- ment bodies toward voluntary standards. For example, in 1996 the federal government established standards to improve small-engine effi ciency.