Snogo Snow Plow
Larimer County
As an increasingly mobile and automobile-oriented society demanded motorized access to national parks, park managers were compelled to develop modern roads. Park roads necessitated regular maintenance, often involving the annual spring removal of deep winter snows to allow automobile passage. The 1932 Snogo was an important tool used to battle the snow banks on Trail Ridge Road and various other Rocky Mountain National Park roads at the beginning of each summer season.
Snogo Snow Plow (2004 photograph.)
The Snogo was innovative for its time, including such state-of-the-art features as an auger and blower to remove large amounts of snow, controls placed within a closed and heated cab, and roll-up windows. Snogos were often used in mountainous and snowy national parks across the country. Rocky Mountain National Park’s Model F Snogo is quite possibly the last remaining such example in the United States. It labored annually until retirement in 1952.