The Prairie Riders Snowmobile Club Ltd. is headquartered in the Village of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., but it has members from several surrounding communities such as the City of Kenosha and the State of Illinois. The club had its beginnings on December 13, 1971.

At the time a Mr. John Mauer was Town Chairman of what was then known as the Town of Pleasant Prairie. Back in those days a majority of the town was rural and consisted mainly of farmland, dairy farms, etc. That was also about the time that snowmobiling was getting to be a bigger and more popular sport.

With the increase of snowmobiles in the area, Mr. Mauer and the Town Board began receiving numerous complaints of snowmobiles riding on private property and the accompanying damage and nuisance. In response and as follow-up to these complaints, Mr. Mauer asked two Pleasant Prairie residents who had snowmobiles, Mr. Jim Gerdes and Mr. Gene Ruhle, if they could organize a snowmobile club and establish some rules and regulations. Gerdes and Ruhle agreed and they began the process of contacting known snowmobilers in the area.

On January 4, 1972, a public meeting was held at the Town Hall to discuss the formation of a snowmobile club. In attendance at that meeting were members of the Town Board and several interested citizens. The club was actually formed at this meeting. By gleaning old board meeting notes, citizen’s comments, etc., it has been determined that known initial members were: Jim Gerdes, Gene Ruhle, Adolph Ruhle, Jim Funk, Don Kleinschmidt, B. J. Ingram, Paul Johnson, Tom Terwall, John Mauer, and Jim Clark. (It is very interesting to note that Gene Ruhle and Tom Terwall, who were “charter members,” are still active members of the club today, and in fact put on a lot of miles each year).  The records do not show who the first officers were, but Don Kleinschmidt became the first Trail-master.  The trails were established and primarily ran through farmer’s fields, for as stated above, the area was primarily agricultural at the time.

Below is one of the first trail maps for Kenosha County.

The following is a very early map of trails that the Prairie Riders maintained.

Shortly after this there was a snowmobile accident on the Kleinschmidt property that resulted in an injury to the operator.  At the time the Pleasant Prairie Fire Department and Rescue Squad did not have any equipment to get to the location of the injured person, so after this incident, the club donated materials and equipment to the Fire Department to construct a “rescues sled.”  Then a “wire stretcher” was donated by the Fire Department to deal with any fences they might encounter during a rescue mission that had to be repaired.  To this day, several members of the club are on a list of volunteers who are on call by the Fire Department in case a snowmobile is needed to assist in a rescue effort.

As the club developed and the trails were ridden, it became apparent that they would need to be groomed.  As a result, the first club groomer was purchased by members Don Kleinschmidt and B. J. Ingram.  It consisted of a snowmobile and a four-foot drag.  (Pretty crude huh?)  The club was charged a fee for grooming the trails.

As is still true today, for the first few years of their existence, the club met once a month during the months of September through May.  The initial regular meetings were held in the evenings at the Pleasant Prairie Town Hall that is located at 9915 39th Avenue, which is just south of Highway ML and across 39th Avenue from Bank One. Meetings were held there until 1993.  At about that time Pleasant Prairie really began to grow and it became increasingly hard to schedule club meetings that were not in conflict with those of the township.  (Eventually the town of Pleasant Prairie became the Village of Pleasant Prairie and still is today).  Also, at that time, there had been several years in a row when there were minimal snow conditions in the area and the country was experiencing a recession.  As a result, snowmobile sales were depressed and membership in the club was dropping fast, particularly those members who were active as officers and chairs of events, etc.  At some of the previous meetings there were only about 5 folks in attendance and most of them were either officers or their spouses.

The Prairie Riders have always been a family oriented club with year round activities, many of which are designed for the whole family.

The final club meeting at the town hall was held in September 1993.  At that meeting the President of the club at the time, Arlyn Baumgarten, proposed that because of the dwindling membership, the club be dissolved or merge with another club. In attendance at that meeting was Rick Kreuser, owner of the “Lagoon,” a pit stop on the trail, and a club sponsor on the Kenosha County Trail Map.  At the time he was a very active member and supporter of the club.  Rick volunteered to host the October meeting on the picnic grounds that were part of and located behind the Lagoon.  He announced that he would be providing free beer and hot dogs and that we should advertise the meeting as a membership drive.  As a result of this wise decision, several new members joined the club, many of who are still currently active members.  The membership continued to grow and mushroomed to the current numbers that hover between 85 and 100 members.  Thus the club went from one of the smallest clubs in the Kenosha County Alliance of Snowmobile Clubs to one of the largest.  Today it is second in membership to the Twin Runners club in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.

Because of the problems in scheduling meetings at the Town Hall, the success of the meeting at the Lagoon in increasing membership, and the fact that some of the newer members wanted to “socialize” a bit during and after the meetings, the meeting site was changed.  For the next several years the meetings were held at the Lagoon.  As time went by, the Lagoon was closed for periods of time for remodeling and eventually closed.  As a result, the meetings location was changed to where they are currently held at the Brat Stop, just west of I-94 and north of Highway 50.

As originally organized, all of the trails in the club were just “club trails” and not part of the official State funded Trail System. However, all of the clubs in Kenosha County, that numbered 10 at the time, belonged to the county snowmobile organization, the Kenosha County Alliance of Snowmobile Clubs, that still exists today. Among its many purposes was to assure that the trails from individual clubs connected to form an interconnected trail system throughout the county and one that also connected with bordering counties, including the state of Illinois. That organization also tried to promote some consistency between the trails of the different clubs and to deal with the county and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in obtaining state funding for those portions of the trails that met the DNR requirements for state funding. Sometime during the mid 1980s, the club Trail-master at the time, Arlyn Baumgarten, was contacted by the Alliance with a proposal to convert approximately 10 miles of the club trails to state funded trails. The purpose was to provide a corridor “link” between the current state trails at the time to the Illinois trail system. This was accomplished and today it still remains as a vital link in both the Kenosha County, as well as the Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs (AWSC) state trail system.

The Prairie Riders have always been a family oriented club with year round activities, many of which are designed for the whole family.  An examination of the “Club Activities” section of the website will reveal a list of current events as planned throughout the year.  In addition to the current events, there were several events of the past years that have been dropped. Examples are such things as:

“Derby Days”:  For years this event was held at the home of former member Don Friddle who also had about 10 acres of land on Stateline road just east of 39th Avenue.  Club members and their families were divided into different age groups and participated in events such as blindfold races, broom races, and the ”swamp run”. Prizes and medals were awarded to the winners and subsequent places.  Don always had plenty of hot chocolate and a big bonfire where attendees cooked hotdogs, etc.

Softball Games:  At the time there were several members in the club who were also members of the Gages Lake Snowmobile Club from Illinois.  Twice a year we would play them in a softball game on snowmobiles. In this game, all movements had to be on your snowmobile.  The pitcher would pitch the ball to the batter who would stand in at the plate.  If the batter hit the ball, they had to then start their snowmobile, hop on it and try to get to first base. Meanwhile the fielders had to start their machines, drive to the ball and throw it to the base.  (Obviously a machine that started on the first pull was a great advantage, but back in those days that was a rarity!)  Anyway, I think you get the picture.  The host club usually provided a big pot of chili and the loser had to buy the beer. These were good times and a lot of fun.

Back in those days, the Alliance had a summer softball tournament.  The Prairie Riders participated for several years and won our share of championships.  These were co-ed events and the gals as well as the guys participated.

Poker Runs:  Back in the early days, insurance claims and liability were not such a big thing and concern, so the club usually sponsored at least 3 poker runs each season. This has been revived somewhat by some of our current club members, Don Pitcher in particular.

MS Rides:  Every year, club members solicited pledges from folks in the form of so much per mile.  Then the club members who were participating would ride either locally or “up north”, record the number of miles they had ridden, and then collect the money and donate it to this very worthy cause.

Parades:  For several years, the club would build a float in former member Bud DeBoer’s garage known as “Buds Towing”.  They were entered into several parades in the area, such as the city of Kenosha’s 4th of July Parade, Pleasant Prairie Days, and Bristol Progress Days.  Several prizes were collected over the years.

Pleasant Prairie Days:  For years the town of Pleasant Prairie sponsored Pleasant Prairie Days.  It consisted of a parade (mentioned previously), food stands, entertainment booths, and other events.  The Prairie Riders always sponsored a Casino Gambling type booth and donated their proceeds to the Pleasant Prairie Rescue Squad.

Landowner’s Banquet:  As stated earlier in this article, in the beginning the area was mostly rural and most of the landowners were farmers and residents with homes in a rural setting.  There were probably between 20 and 30 landowners on the club trail system.  Each year in late March, the club organized a formal banquet to which all of the landowners were invited in appreciation for letting the club use their land for the trails.  This was a semi-formal affair and it was quite common for most of the attendees to wear suits and party dresses.  It was held at a nice place such as Bristol Oaks Country Club, the Italian American Club, the Holiday Inn, etc.  Landowners attended free and the club members and other guest purchased tickets for the event. Landowner’s wives/significant others were given corsages and the tables were adorned with bouquets.  There were raffles for gifts that were donated by our sponsors, members, and others.  This was always the highlight of the year and it was usually attended by over 100 folks.  Due to the changing nature of the area more and more land is now owned and being developed by corporations, etc.  As a result the number of landowners decreased dramatically and this event was cancelled.  However, we still invite the remaining landowners to selected club events.

The above activities are but some of the many events that were sponsored by the Prairie Riders over the many years.  Although many of the past events have been abandoned, many new ones have been added such as the camping trip, the Halloween Party and others as listed elsewhere in the club website.  Of particular note are the donations the club makes to the Kenosha Shalom Center each year.

Another interesting part of the club’s history is the various persons who have served as club president.  Although some of the early ones may have been missed, the following is the best known list

• John Mauer
• John Gully
• Jim Clifford
• Arlyn Baumgarten
• Dave Munchoff
• Lenny Kaminski
• Sam Spitz
• Terry Nierenberger
• Arlyn Baumgarten
• Tom Petrusky
• Martin Pietkiewicz
• Rick Merrill
• Jim VanCleve
• Jody Hammond

Interestingly enough, there have only been two Trail-masters in the club’s history, Don Kleinschmidt and Arlyn Baumgarten.  Arlyn is the current Trail-master and is assisted by Tom Petrusky.

Over the years there have been numerous firms who have been “sponsors” and “pit stops” along the trails of the club, including the following:

• Gordy and Vannies
• Lagoon
• Bohats
• Earls Club
• Timber Ridge
• Roger’s Gin Mill
• Kountry Store
• Hussy’s

This list may have missed some for which we apologize; however, the club appreciates the support we have received from these current and former sponsors.

The Prairie Riders are extremely proud of their rich heritage.  We have grown from a small club with humble but noble beginnings to a vibrant and active organization, committed to serving our members, as well as the entire community.  We encourage readers of this article to become members of our club and welcome your ideas for this article as well as the entire website.

This article was prepared by Arlyn H. Baumgarten with valuable input from Gene and Jenny Ruhle and Tom Terwall.