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Event

An unattended snowmobile crosses Beaver Island harbor, 1981

Also Ghost Rider On The Ice · Larry Scholl runaway snowmobile

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Date1981-01-11
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Date
1981-01-11
Kind
Accident
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
recreationtransportationpublic-servicecommunitycommunication
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

On January 11, 1981, Larry Scholl’s newly acquired snowmobile reportedly ran unattended from his yard, across the harbor, and toward Beaver Island’s power station before rocks stopped it. The Beacon story closes with the safety lesson to check a snowmobile throttle before starting it.

Evidence and limits

The source is a humorous first-person-style community story. It does not give a repair bill, precise route, or independent witness statements.

Sources

  1. The humorous account says Larry Scholl’s snowmobile traveled unattended at full throttle from his yard, across the harbor, and toward the power station before striking rocks and stopping. It is a narrative account with an explicit safety moral, not an incident report or damage assessment. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1981-02_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held thirteen-page February issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the story.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1981-02_Beaver-Beacon

Added 4 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “An unattended snowmobile crosses Beaver Island harbor, 1981”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-ghost-rider-snowmobile-1981/, accessed [date], citing Ham and Larry, “Ghost Rider On The Ice,” Beaver Beacon, February 1981. (and 1 further source listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

BibTeX for “An unattended snowmobile crosses Beaver Island harbor, 1981”RIS for “An unattended snowmobile crosses Beaver Island harbor, 1981”