Ski-dog Snowmobile

Joseph-Armand Bombardier, who lived from 1907 to 1964, is one of the best-known French-Canadian entrepreneurs and industrialists. Besides inventing original and functional machines, he also came up with the mechanical tools to manufacture them. His success transformed his company from a small family workshop in Valcourt, Quebec, to a publicly-traded multi-national corporation.

It was in 1959 that Bombardier marketed its very first snowmobile. The product, initially baptized Ski-Dog in reference to sleds pulled by huskies, is known today as Skidoo, due to a printing error.

Before mass-producing his snowmobile, Bombardier had it tested by Ojibwe drivers from the village of Lansdowne House in northern Ontario. This new vehicle radically transformed transportation and winter recreation in the snowiest regions of the world.