Connections between Michigan and Ohio go far beyond football teams or the Toledo War.

I was well aware of it while living in northern Michigan halfway into my 30s, the final 14 years spent in a resort town.

The town, Gaylord, attracted people to one of four disciplines — hunting, golfing, skiing, or snowmobiling.

In a place where winter lingered far beyond three months, skiing and snowmobiling were instrumental in warming the area’s winter economy.

Anecdotally, skiers and golfers came from downstate Michigan or perhaps nearby Ontario — a couple of hours to a quieter pace with hills and world-class golf courses a top selling point.

Hunters came from everywhere, a vast network of woods, cabins, and family connections attracting many to the comfort and quiet of the northern Michigan pines.

Snowmobilers were different in the reality that many came from Ohio. The Buckeye State winter was still cold, but bursts of snow tended to be accompanied with around-the-corner meltdowns. Hop on I-75 northbound, and those from Ohio could be riding the trails within hours of the work week ending.

I reported on the snowmobiling industry in northern Michigan. A network of trails connected towns, with handfuls of restaurants and hotels catering almost entirely to riders during the heart of winter.

Because of my background, my interest was piqued when I recently saw a news story that shocked me.

Arctic Cat, one of the nation’s top snowmobile-making companies, announced it was indefinitely suspending production at its two main plants in Minnesota. That comes on the heels of Yamaha stopping to make snowmobiles in 2023.

An industry that once had 100 companies making machines, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, is down to just two — Polaris and Ski-Doo. The Star-Tribune reported Polaris saw an 80% decline in profits this year, while Ski-Doo cut snowmobile production by 30%.

An industry tied to northern economies and one that has been enjoyed by so many from our part of Ohio is in peril.

From the Star-Tribune: “Warm winters and high interest rates are to blame. A new snowmobile can cost $20,000. Without the guarantee of snow, consumers find the investment harder to justify.”

The warm winter of 2023-24 especially played havoc on the snow sports industry.

My feeling is that that trend has been in motion for some time, and it’s not going away.

My last few years in Michigan, changes were hard to deny. We still got pummeled with lake-effect snow, often getting a foot or two at a time. But, even in the dead of winter, we’d often be visited by a warm spell that would begin to melt down the snowpack needed for good snowmobiling conditions.

The snow still came, but, in essence, it seemed like a much more amped-up version of what we see here in Ohio — snow comes, then it melts. Winters were becoming a muddy mess in a place where green used to be seen only April through October.

When I got to Ohio, I was reveled with tales of snowstorms, of parents using implements to build sledding hills in neighborhoods.

“Just wait until it snows, we’ll make a great hill,” I was told before my first winter.

Here in my sixth, I’ve yet to see a single person sledding, and have yet to see my yard covered in snow for any more than a couple of days.

Whatever the cause, the weather is changing. And the chain affects everyone — from the snowmobile production plant in Minnesota to the restaurant owner along the trail in Michigan to those who previously spent multiple weekends a year traveling north.

At the paper in Gaylord, our office was steps from the major north-south snowmobile trail into the city. I grew accustomed to the unmistakable whir-whir-whir of a snowmobile engine. Think of a scaled-down version of what a race car sounds like. It was part of the soundtrack to living there, and, in writing this column, I nostalgically realized I haven’t heard that sound now in five-and-a-half years.

There are plenty of other ways to spend time, and there are plenty of other things vying for our money. Those with the need for speed will find other pastimes, and those who are business-savvy will take advantage of recreational trends.

I’m sure the snowmobiling industry will live on, pushing farther north and west.

But …

The changes will cause some Ohioans to pause and consider their investment. Something doable on a weekend now may take three or four days. Two trips a winter may become one. When it’s time to purchase a new sled, what decision will be made?

The sound. The bright snowmobile suits proudly worn by people filling up their gas tanks at stations. Helmets on the handlebars of machines lined up at a restaurant, outnumbering traditional cars three to one.

Those visual and audio postcards of my past winters are becoming further and further between in the present as an industry connecting states and people comes to grips with unprecedented change.

Alpena native Jeremy Speer is the publisher of The Courier in Findlay, Ohio, the Sandusky (Ohio) Register, The Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin, Ohio, the Norwalk (Ohio) Reflector, and Review Times in Fostoria, Ohio. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.