Ben Hunt's Klondike Sled
Plans:
I made these drawings from a real honest-to-goodness Klondike sled brought from Alaska. This sled plan, by Ben Hunt himself, is sure to attract attention at your Council's next Boy Scout Klondike Sled Derby!
Photographs
of a Ben Hunt Klondike Sled (Above)
Built by the Boy Scouts of Troop 6 in the Mountain City area of Tennessee.
Basic
Boy Scout Klondike Derby Sled Plan
(additional styles below)
Copied from an "actual" Klondike Derby Sled, 12-7-63. Redrawn 9-20-66. Drawing reissued for Klondike Sled Derby in conjunction with Winter Festival, 1967. From the Niagara Frontier Council.
Equipment Gear Sleds:
Made from child's molded plastic toy. PVC pipe prevents sled from hitting your legs while going down hill.
Dan Beard's Eskimo Dog Sled
Designed by one of Scouting's Founders, this is another authentic sled plan for Klondike Sled Derby perfectionists. Complete with plans for the dog harnesses!
Easy
Klondike
Sledge Plan
"Copied from Sketch Issued by National Council. Redrawn 4-1-70 (First Issued Jan. 1964)."
Ben
Hunt's Eskimo Komatik Sled:
This is the type of sled used by the Eastern Artic Eskimos of Canada. Runners are usually made of spruce, split out of logs or of planks bought from a local trading post. This is a rugged sled, easy to build and well suited for the Klondike Derby. Cross pieces are lashed to runners with 1/8th cotton cord. Eskimos prefer cord to rawhide because their dogs will not chew it.
Ben
Hunt's Packrack Sled
With a pack like this, when your shoulders begin to ache, all you have to do is reverse the duffel on the rack and pull it along. Not a bad deal for Boy Scout winter camping and easy to build.
Ben
Hunt's Cree Trail Toboggan
Up in the Canadian wilds, the Crees and other Indians use these long, narrow toboggans to haul their hunting & camping equipment and to bring back the meat. These toboggans follow in the deep snowshoe trail where wider sleds would not.
Ben
Hunt's Artic Hand Sled
This is a picturesque sled and well adapted for winter hikes and overnight camping trips. This sled is not intended for coasting but for hauling equipment only.
Dan
Beard's Tom Thumb Ice Boat:
Although a full-rigged, delicately balanced ice-yacht looks like a very complicated piece of mechanism, when it is carefully examined the framework will be found to consist of two pieces crossing each other at right angles.
Stone
Boat Sled
Dan Beard's Toboggan
This sled, familiar to all who visit Canada during the winter months, is more like a mammoth snowshoe than the ordinary sled, sleigh or jumper that we are accustomed to see. It is suitable for the deep snow and heavy drifts of the northern countries, where the runners of a common sleigh would be liable to break through the crust and bury themselves.
Dan Beard's "Skiboggan"
In the New England States, where the snow is seldom soft and often is coated with a hard crust of ice, the runners of the native sleds, only a few inches in height, appear very low compared with the Ohio sled; even sleds with no runners at all are sometimes used. On steep, icy hills any old thing will slide, and here it is that the Skiboggan is seen in all its glory. In construction this cranky sled is simplicity itself.
Dan
Beard's Double-Runner, or Bob Sled
If you desire to further test your ability by building some thing more difficult than a simple Ohio Sled, you may try your hand in the construction of this sled. Possesses many advantages over the long sleds formerly used west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Dan
Beard's Bob Sleigh
Is made by joining with a reach-board two low-runner sleds or "bobs."
Dan Beard's Van Kleeck Bob Sled
The swiftest bob-sled of my acquaintance. This fast bob-sled is neither so simple nor so crude as the rustic jumpers described some time ago, and it will test your skill to build it properly, but with all the plans and measurements before you the task should not be too difficult for even a boy who can handle tools.
Dan Beard's "Boy Pioneer" Bob
Sled
In the other sled plans the reader can find descriptions of all sorts of bob-sleds, from one made with flour-barrel runners up to the latest and most improved racing bob-sled. But none of them seem so appropriate for Dan Beard's "Boy Pioneers" as does this one, made of the rough material from the forest.
Dan
Beard's Ohio Sled
The sled with high runners looks odd to a Yankee, but it has its advantages when the snow is soft and deep, and it may be for this reason that the runners of The Native Sleds of the Ohio Valley average more inches in height than the sled runners of New England, where the snow is seldom slush as it is further south.
Dan Beard's Jumper
The jumper is a sleigh made from green wood, cut in the forest for the occasion; hickory saplings furnish the proper material and the denser the forest the taller and straighter the saplings will be.
Dan Beard's Gummer
The Gummer is a hand sled built on the general plans of The Jumper, and it is called a gummer because it is somewhat similar to the ones used by the men known as gummers who live in the forests and make their living by collecting spruce gum for children and "sales-ladies" to chew.
Dan Beard's "Get There" Sled
Instructions as to how to build this famous sled.
Ammunition
Sled for Snowball Warfare
If properly done, this sled will be almost impossible to break; and, with a rope to pull by, one boy can haul snowballs enough for a dozen companions.
