TURNER – Paul Bernier started off by setting aside customers’ trade-ins. Older snowmobiles in generally good shape got tucked into a chicken barn in Livermore.

When he sold his Arctic Cat business in 1999, he had a whole lot of old sleds.

After a few trips to the world’s largest antique snowmobile swap meet in Waconia, Minn., he had even more.

Bernier has put 300 on display at his Antique Snowmobile Museum on Route 4, a big warehouse space stacked four-high with boxy, sleek, bright yellow and cool black machines.

Someday, he’ll add 200-plus vintage snowsuits and turn thousands of old manuals and brochures into a snowmobile library.

“There’s only one or two sleds on my list that I’m really looking for. (Next) we’re going to concentrate on getting the museum in a better place,” Bernier said.

His oldest machine dates back to the late 1950s. Mileage ranges from zero – the 1972 Auto Ski was found in a crate, still has original factory-wrap on the windshield – to 9,000.

The collection features racing sleds, rear-engine sleds, everyday models and diminutive ones, like the Kitty Cat for kids. Most all of them would run, with gas and a few tweaks.

Bernier’s favorite is a 1973 Auto Ski Mach 1. A rare sled in this condition, it’s exactly like the one he cracked up as a teen. His sled had stalled, and his younger brother, John, crested a hill on his own snowmobile and struck the Auto Ski head-on.

“He went over the handlebars of his, landed on my hood. He stood up and he was coming after me,” said John. Still doesn’t think Paul has forgiven him.

The museum has been open about two years, on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or weekdays by appointment. (It runs on donations only.) People seem to have the most fun looking for snowmobiles they rode as a kid, or a sled their dad used to drive, Paul said.

“The minute they walk through the door, their jaws drop, they can’t believe it, then they’re off,” he said.

Jonny Wakefield, operations manager at United Sports Trailer Sales & Service, which takes up the front half of the big building, washes and waxes each machine every few months.

“We take pride in it. If I was going to drive for three hours to see this collection, I wouldn’t want to see cobwebs and dust – I want to see something that knocks my socks off,” Wakefield said.

He’s used to people walking into the business, spying the few antique sleds shelved high on the wall, and asking, “This is your museum?”

One of the guys will usually answer, on cue: “We’ve got a few out back.”