When you’re sipping on some cowboy coffee out of this camping mug out in the backcountry, just be thankful you’re not shivering in Greenland like LCC-1’s drivers were.

Called ‘The Monster’ by people across the north, the LCC-1 ‘Sno-Train’ was an excessive machine, even by the standards of Texas-based LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. Its innovative diesel-electric transmission and powerful traction gave LCC-1 the ability to go where no engine-powered land vehicle had ever gone before. It was built to help supply workers on Distant Early Warning (DEW) line stations along the Arctic coast, but it was challenged throughout its lifespan by its inability to carry adequate fuel quantities, as well as slow speeds and limited maneuverability. With advances in freight helicopter technology in the 1950s and 60s, the writing was on the wall for Logistical Cargo Carriers. However, they continue to hold an outsized place in the northern imagination.