River Valley Dutchmen Snowmobile Club President Matt Schmiesing stands next to the snowmobile, a 2022 Ski Doo MXZ, which the club will be giving away in a raffle this year. The club is celebrating its 50th anniversary, a year late after postponing the celebration last year due to COVID-19.

BROWN COUNTY — A year late due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the River Valley Dutchmen Snowmobile Club celebrated its 50th anniversary at the Sleepy Eye Event Center Thursday.

The club continues to groom and maintain 200 miles of Brown County snowmobile trails, working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to provide safe, well maintained, enjoyable trails for snowmobilers.

Of 20,000 miles of Minnesota snowmobile trails, only about 2,000 miles are maintained by the DNR. The remaining trails are maintained by local club volunteers.

With that in mind, the club is interested in gaining new members and volunteers to help maintain trails.

The club plans to host a snowmobile hillclimb beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 5 at Golden Gate Campground, just south of the Minnesota River, several miles east of State Highway 4.

Club President Matt Schmiesing said lots of snowmobiles were using Brown County trails last weekend.

“The trails will be open as long as there is snow,” said Schmiesing.

The club’s certified snowmobile safety instructors and the Brown County Sheriff’s Office help young snowmobilers pass safety training classes.

A sled raffle for a 2022 Ski Doo MXZ is taking place this year. See a club member for details.

Snowmobiles can be very valuable during blizzards. In January 1975, one of the worst blizzards in area history featured snowmobilers playing a key role.

Club member Les Stadick of New Ulm said he remembered driving a snowmobile to Courtland to help a hospital nurse get to work in a New Ulm hospital. Stadick said the New Ulm Police Dept. met him at the city limits after he brought the nurse from Courtland to New Ulm.

“The snow was so bad, not even four-wheel-drive vehicles were on Broadway,” Stadick said.

Snowmobiles were also used to take medical personnel to patients and to carry milk and formula to babies.

During a November 1991 snowstorm, New Ulm nurse Pat Hartman got on the back of Stadick’s snowmobile for a ride to work at the Sioux Valley Hospital Emergency Room.

“I called the sheriff’s office first to see if there was a snowplow that would be going by. They said absolutely not,” said Hartman in a Nov. 4, 1991 story in The Journal.

“He (Les) and his son Tim came out and away we went,” Hartman said in the story. She borrowed snowmobile riding gear from a neighbor and said she enjoyed her first snowmobile ride since high school.

According to the story, Tim Stadick said snowmobile club members expect calls from doctors, nurses, public utility workers, and anyone else needing emergency rides that could include riding through a ditch to ensure nobody is stranded in a vehicle.

On Feb. 7-8, 2004, the snowmobile club hosted the World Snowmobiling Association Minnesota South Regional Snocross races at the Brown County Fairgrounds. Racers competed for $20,000 in cash and prizes over two days.

The snowmobile club hosted radar runs (drag races) on Lake Hanska a number of years ago.

In 2013, club members Tim Stadick and Chuck Effenberger competed with masters division professionals at the World Championship Snowmobile HIllclimb at Jackson Hole, Wyo.

For more information including a trail map, visit https://www.rvdsc.org/