Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 5644 | Snowmobile VERMONT HISTORY Poultney Valley Snowmobile Devils was organized in 1972 by a few landowners who loved to snowmobile and knew there needed to be some sort of organized trails coordinated with the needs of landowners and with the landowner’s permission. The Poultney Valley Snowmobile Devils Inc. was started as a result. The club soon became much respected around the community, the county and at VAST headquarters. With a very active membership, many good ideas were presented to the club and things got done. With a town population of around 2,000 people, Poultney’s club had close to 400 members at one time. FOUNDING MEMBERS: The first club meeting was held in 1972 at Bob Chrisman’s garage and those present were Bob Chrisman, Bob Chesnut Sr., Gene Doty, Bill DeBonis, William “Doc” Williams and Fred Capman. Someone nominated Bob Chesnut for president and Bill DeBonis volunteered his brother, who was not there, to be the club attorney to handle legal matters. Someone mentioned a club name should be established and the Blue Devils came up. “The Blue Devils” is the Poultney High School sports name. After discussion, the “Poultney Valley Snowmobile Devils” was decided on. Bob Chesnut told the group he didn’t want to be president, and after a recent discussion with him, he said, “Hell, I had no idea what I was doing!” Well, Bob must have done something right! The club is still going strong after 44 years and the method of nominations hasn’t changed much. As time went on, more and more people in Poultney got involved, with sometimes as many as 25 to 35 members at a meeting. During the 1970s, snowmobiling was a booming industry. The Poultney club ended up being involved in the Poultney Valley Club, along with the Rotary and Grange. The hall would seat over 150 people for banquets, so with revenue from renting out the hall and holding bingo every week, the hall paid for itself. When the Rotary choose to bow out of the partnership, it became difficult for the remaining groups to run the Valley Club so it was dissolved and the building sold. CLUB By Tom Coloutti FEATURED Left: Yamaha Snowmobile Pride awards were handed out at the 1988–89 Snowmobile Congress. Evie and Charlie Monroe accepted the national club award for the Poultney Valley Snowmobile Devils. Right: Charlie and Evie Monroe have passed away, but their spirit of volunteering is still felt today in the permanent lease of their barn to the club to use for storing groomers and equipment. The office inside the barn is now a small club museum.