Village Squire, 1979-01, Page 5Pulting snow
to food use
Randy and Audrey Collins today manage a successful business
after years of struggle.
2 Village Squire. January 1979
Couple built business
thanks to snowbelt
When Mr. and Mrs. Randy Collins moved from Ontario's
banana belt in Essex county in 1969 to the snowbelt of Huron
county they were simply amazed at all the snow. There had to be
some good to it. Randy recalls thinking and out of it was born a
winter and later, an all -year resort in the farmland near Varna.
Few would have thought even a decade ago that the relatively
flat lands of south Huron would be much of a prospect for a
winter resort but all that was changed by the growing popularity
of the snowmobile. Back in 1969 when they began thinking about
putting all that snow to good use. the Collins had never even
ridden on a snowmobile. They thought the machines looked like
a lot of fun though and sat down to work out ideas of how the
snow and the new machines could be combined into a business.
They started daydreaming and put down a whole list of things
they could do including rentals of snowmobiles, races and
building a chalet.
Nothing was done in 1969 or 1970 except dream a little more
and write things down. Nothing. that is on the idea of a winter
resort. The Collins family itself was very busy. Randy was only
24 years old but he had three children and was operating a dairy
farm. The idea of getting into yet another committment was
something to require considerable thought.
The first solid move toward the dream, he recalls now with a
smile, was right after the big storm of 1971. The couple was
driving near Seaforth when they saw some men cutting down
trees. They thought how interesting table tops these huge trees
could make for their dream chalet so they stopped. and Randy
offered the men S5 to cut the tree into thin enough slices that
could be made into table tops. It turned out to be a bad
investment. The snow got so deep that the wood got buried and
he never did get back to pick up his table tops.
The next step was taken when the couple saw that an old
acquaintance down in Essex was selling snowmobiles and they
decided to buy one. Money for the young couple was not easy to
come by but they realized if they hoped to have the resort of their
dreams they would have to get to know a lot about snowmobiles.
They realized that the easiest way for them to get access to
snowmobiles at a price they could afford was to take a
dealership. So they bought the snowmobile from their friend and
held an open house in February of 1971 in an old garage on the
farm. Their idea was go get as many people as possible to learn
the enjoyment of snowmobiles. It was a cold day, he recalls and
neither that day or the rest of the year did they sell a snowmobile
but they sure gave a lot of people rides.