local news paper story with two pictures

March 24
Building A Dream
By Jacqueline M. Dotzenrod
Few people will continue to chase their childhood dreams into adulthood. But Joe Jameson, of Amenia, is still running them down in a snowplane.

“When I was in about the fifth grade, I was trudging through the snow,” he said. “Then I saw some tracks and I didn’t know what they were. Later, I saw a machine flying across the snow and I was quite enthused about it.”

What young Jameson saw was a snowplane. The predecessor to snowmobiles, snowplanes were most popular during the 1930s to the 1960s, Jameson said.

“They used them a lot in Canada and the northern states in the early half of the last century to deliver mail and doctors used them for travel once the roads became impassible,” he added. “Back then, nothing else could get around. The roads have become more maintained over the years and the snowplane went by the wayside.”

As a youth, Jameson built wood models of snowplanes that even ran on small motors. He dreamed of having a real one someday.

“My wife and I moved away to where it was warmer and did ministry and mission work for about six years,” he said. “I decided that if I ever got back to Amenia where it was nice and flat and snowy, I would build one.”

Sure enough, Jameson returned to Amenia and set to work on his snowplane during the fall of 2006.

“I started last fall and we finished on March 17, the last day there was snow on the ground,” he said. “We tested it and knew it worked. We worked on it and refined it this summer.”

The refinements included a bigger motor as well as various add-ons such as a power mirror, a heater and even a luggage rack.

“That really has no apparent reason,” he said with a smile “But I figured, if I was going to get carried away...”

With an interest in mechanical things and his work with building models, Jameson had already laid the groundwork in his mind about what would go into constructing a real snowplane.

“When I was living out in Pennsylvania where it wasn’t very snowy, I would transport people to different airports and I would spend hours behind the wheel and envisioned how I would do it,” he said. “I built it in my mind before we started doing any welding on it.”

Without much knowlege about some aspects of the project, Jameson turned to friends and neighbors for advice.

“I got a lot of help, a lot of information from people,” he said. “Several different people helped me with this. There’s been a lot of moral support as well as the engineering help and machining help. A lot of people took interest in it because it’s kind of a different project.”

Jameson began by putting the plans in his head down on paper.

“Once I had the idea, I started laying it out and welding it in my garage here at home,” he said. “As it was built, I decided where things should go, tweaked some things here and there.”

Piece by piece the snowplane came together over the winter.

“I looked around for and bought scrap material, paying for it as I could afford it,” he said. “We worked on it all winter, day and night. We’d work until 10:30 or 11:30 at night with my friend.We put a lot of hours on it.”

The suspension on the front is off a motorcycle and the rear is old race car shock absorbers. Part of the steering is from a Volkswagen.

“It’s stuff I had to scrounge around for,” he added.

Welding in his garage until it got below zero, Jameson moved the project to a friend’s heated shop in Arthur and finished it there just in time for the last snow in the spring of 2007.

“I had some good help,” Jameson said. “Dave’s Auto Wrecking of Amenia and Bob Sagen up at Shocker Hitch let me work in his shop and they helped me a lot.”

The snowplane was finished just in time for a test run before the snow melted.

“It was kind of a life-long dream to have one,” he said. “I had it pictured in my mind for so many years. It’s so much fun to see it now, brought into reality.”

Jameson’s greatest joy in having the snowplane is taking relatives and children for rides.

“It brings out the kid in anybody that rides in it,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of riders. We go around the yard. It’s just been a lot of fun that way, a lot of satisfaction.”

With spring on its way, Jameson is already making plans for his next snowplane.

“It’s going to be smaller and lighter with the same amount of power,” he said. “I’ve got some parts and a lot of ideas.”

newspaper story about the first "cruel mistress"

the following is an article from the Fargo Forum, it was written just before the snow melted. I sold it soon after the article came out and was able to build the orange and white one in the other posts. I have started dreaming about the third one. Joe
Man’s dreams take wing
Tracy Frank
The Forum - 03/28/2008
Joe Jameson first saw a snowplane in 1962, when he was in fifth grade.
The Amenia, N.D., man has been enthralled with the machines ever since.

“I was walking through some deep snow and these tracks went right over it,” he said. “Then I saw a machine go flying by over the top of the snow that I was trudging through.”

As a child, Jameson built models that actually zipped across his yard.

“I was always fascinated by them.”

Forty-five years after his first snowplane sighting, Jameson built one of his own.

He started in November 2006 and finished, with a little help from some friends, by March 2007.

“It worked right from the start,” Jameson said. “Right from the turn of the key it was a success.”

Over the summer he painted it and installed a larger motor.

When Jameson told people he planned to build a snowplane, they became interested and gave him parts and materials, he said.

“A friend from Pennsylvania sent me the propeller,” he said. “There was a lot of moral support and encouragement.”

The snowplane slides along the snow on three skis pushed by an airplane propeller.

“It starts out with the noise of the motor speeding up, and then it just slides away,” Jameson said. “It has a suspension, so it just floats on top of the snow.”

The vehicle, which travels at about 40 mph and can hold two adults, maneuvers more like a boat than a car, Jameson said. It has a Subaru motor, and a heater and blower fan mounted in its nose.

“It kind of brings out the child in anyone who rides in it,” Jameson said.

He’s working on another snowplane that will be more compact than the first one but with the same amount of power.

So far he has the motor, propeller, skis and steering.

“I build them mostly out of odds and ends and recycled material,” Jameson said.

Jameson said he is willing to sell the one he has now for money toward his second snow plane.

“They’re really a novelty, so there’s not much demand for them,” Jameson said.

Snowplanes were popular in the 1930s through 1960s, he said. Postal workers and doctors in Canada used them to get around before highway systems were built, he said.

They were also used for hunting before being replaced by snowmobiles, Jameson said.

“It’s real novel. People just don’t build snowplanes anymore,” said Bob Sagen, who let Jameson use his shop, Shocker Hitch, in Arthur, N.D., to build part of the vehicle.

Sagen said it was fun to see the snowplane coming together.

As exciting as it was to see the snowplane work for the first time, Jameson said it is even more thrilling to share it with others.

“What’s given me the greatest pleasure is seeing children and other people ride in it,” Jameson said. “That’s probably been my biggest joy of having it.”

progress

I have come quite a ways on sled two. I have the body covered, the chassis assembled, and the motor mounted and running. I have to finnish the propeller drive and mount it, I have gathered up the parts for that and need to machine a couple of them together. Today I am working on covering the ski assemblies with non stick lining. Joe

video