Carey Taylor was from Staunton, Va., but he found his way to Charleston, West Virginia, where he was a top-notch mechanic and a Charleston motorcycle policeman. Carey thought it would be fun to turn a shiny red Indian motorcycle into a powered sled. He’s at the wheel in this 1916 photo. The winters of long ago were sometimes brutal. Most of the snow-fighting equipment such as plows and salt trucks were unheard of, so a motorized sled was an interesting way to get around. Nobody can say how the strange contraption worked out, but suffice to say it got a lot of attention. Taylor’s quest for speed began as a motorcycle racer. His luck ran out in 1931 when he was killed at a Clarksburg track while driving his custom-built racecar. A few years ago while visiting Staunton, I found Taylor’s grave and left a flower because he was my dad’s friend and I remembered that strange little sled they had fun with so long ago. Photo reprinted from Charleston Gazette Newspaper