GORHAM – Wiped out by arson two years ago, Gorham SnoGoers, a snowmobile club, is riding a comeback with a new clubhouse, which members will show off at a grand opening on Saturday.

The club’s two-story, wooden headquarters at 209 Mighty St. was reduced to charred ruins on March 31, 2012, one in a string of unsolved arson cases that spring in Gorham.

“It was real discouraging,” Ryan Smith, club president, said on Tuesday. “We’re still getting everything up and going after the fire.”

A former portable classroom from a Gorham school was moved to the group’s half-acre site as its replacement clubhouse. Residents and club members pulled together to get the SnoGoers motoring following the fire.

“Our motto is, ‘United we trail, divided we fail,’ ” said Grant Caron of Gorham, SnoGoers’ treasurer.

Showcasing its new headquarters, the club, 50 members strong, is holding a landowner appreciation day and open house with food and beverages from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15.

“Anyone is welcome,” said Smith, a 1996 Gorham High School graduate.

Firefighters responded at 1:30 a.m. on March 31, 2012, to battle the blaze, which destroyed the SnoGoers clubhouse.

“It was leveled,” Smith said.

Smith said Terry Deering, the captain at Gorham’s Central Fire Station, notified him about the fire. When Smith called other SnoGoers with the bad news, he said, they at first thought it was an April Fool’s joke.

The SnoGoers clubhouse was the second in a series of six fires in less than a month in 2012 at vacant buildings in the upper part of the town. The clubhouse and four others were ruled as arson by the state fire marshal’s office, and another fire was considered suspicious.

Maine Fire Marshal Joe Thomas said on Tuesday there have been no arrests.

“The bulk of them are still active investigations,” Thomas said.

Town Councilor Suzanne Phillips, who is helping with the SnoGoers open house, confirmed this week that the town’s $10,000 reward is still in effect for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the arsons.

Besides the SnoGoers headquarters, a former 100-year-old Grange Hall, the club lost its records, photographs, news articles and trail signs.

“Everything we had,” Smith said.

The community pitched in to help. The town donated $5,000 that Phillips said came from snowmobile registrations in Gorham, and the town also contributed a portable classroom from the Narragansett School. The club paid to have the portable building transported to its lot and placed on a concrete base.

The portable classroom is now a permanent home for the club. It didn’t require any interior work. One large, carpeted room is utilized for meetings, and the club furnished it with tables and chairs. The club utilizes another room for storage of trail signs and other related equipment.

The building did come with a gas Monitor heater, but no bathroom. The club will have a portable bathroom at its open house.

The club was founded in 1969. It bought its original building 14 years ago from the Gorham North Street Ladies Aid, according to Gorham assessing records. The SnoGoers had the building insured for $50,000.

Club expenses include about $10,000 annually for repairing trail bridges and covering fuel and oil costs associated with trail maintenance. Smith said it receives a maximum allowed annual amount of $3,700 from the state. To receive the funds, Smith said, the club has to qualify through maintenance of the trails.

The club grooms 44 miles of trails in Gorham. To handle the task, it has a 2002 Chevrolet Blazer that is mounted on tracks and two Ski-Doo Skandic snowmobiles, each outfitted with grooming drag.

Smith said 776 snowmobiles are registered in Gorham.

“Our trails are open to everybody,” Smith said.

In addition to snowmobiling, the groomed trails also serve other winter activities like cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Even wildlife in winter travel over the trails. On Tuesday morning, Caron counted 20 deer on a snowmobile trail near a farm on Mighty Street.

The SnoGoers welcome new members. Smith, a member for four years and president for three, said dues are $35 per family and $50 for a business.

Caron has been a member for eight years, but has been riding snowmobile trails about 18 years.

“Now, I’m paying back my 10 years of not doing anything,” Caron said about his service to the club.

A CLOSER LOOK

Gorham SnoGoers is hosting an open house and landowner appreciation day at its new headquarters, at 209 Mighty St., Gorham, Saturday, Feb. 15, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

For more information about Gorham SnoGoers, visit gorhamsnowgoers.org.

Grant Caron of Gorham SnoGoers pulls a snowmobile trail groomer on Tuesday into its Mighty Street clubhouse, which replaces one destroyed by arson in 2012. Arson two years ago left the Gorham SnoGoers’ former clubhouse on Mighty Street a pile of rubble. The fire is one in the 2012 series of six fires in Gorham that officials say are open investigations.