Alaskans yield to lower 48 on 'snowmobile'

October 20, 2008|By Charles Leroux, TRIBUNE REPORTER

As America becomes more and more dialed into the lexicon of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, distinctions emerge. For instance, she calls snowmobiles "snow machines." Why?

As she herself notes on, "Up here, it's a snow machine."

Elsewhere, it's a "snowmobile," and a "snow machine" is a machine that makes snow.

Craig Medred, a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, owns a snowmobile and uses it when he covers the Iditarod dog-sled race.

"Ten years ago or so," he said, "the paper instituted a policy that we are to use 'snowmobile' and 'snow machine' interchangeably, though we tend to say 'snow machine' on first reference out of local preference. I don't know why, but some Alaskans seem to think of 'snowmobile' as sissified."

Medred, who grew up in Minnesota, was asked if there is any attempt to use the term "snowmobile" for readers outside Alaska.

"Alaskans don't really care about people outside Alaska," he said.

The Palin family association with snow machines is mostly through "First Dude" Todd Palin, four-time winner of the grueling 2,000-mile Tesoro Iron Dog snowmobile race. Laura Bedard, executive director of Iron Dog Inc., which runs the race for sponsoring oil company Tesoro, said, "The term, 'snow machine' goes back to the early days of snowmobiles. For that matter, so does 'iron dog,' which is what the native population first called them. But things have changed, and we're aware that, for many people, a snow machine is a snowmaker. We want our race recognized to the world, so we use 'snowmobile.'"

By any name, the snowmobile is a relatively new beast. After some early, clanking behemoths, a Canadian company, Bombardier, in 1959 tied a lighter, smaller engine than had been available in the past to skis and came up with what we'd recognize as the modern, open-cockpit, one- or two-person design. The company sold it as the "Ski-doo," a name that sometimes is applied to the whole category.

Leading up to the vice presidential debates, Palin told a sports news site, "I really hope that the first question that they ask me is about snowmobile racing. Then I can immediately correct them and let them know that it's actually called snow-machine racing. That'll show them."