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Jeremy Crapo's Family Ties, part 1
SNO-X Magazine Vol 6, No 5, Spring 2008
Words by Vince Castellanos
Images by the Crapo family and Wayne Davis

The Crapo kids grew up running, crying and laughing together.
Always together.

Parents Patsy and David had five children in less than seven years: Jeremy and Kurtis were just 16 months apart. Kimberly, the lone girl, was next, then Mikael and Shaun.
“At first, they all slept in one room,” Patsy says. “Four of them shared a bunk bed and Shaun was in a crib.”
Kimberly stayed with the boys for a while even after the brood moved into bigger digs. “She was so used to being with them that she didn’t like it on her own,” Patsy explains.
Togetherness is a Crapo clan hallmark. David’s dad, Maurice, had five siblings and modest means. “They started with nothing,” David says. “And they shared everything and relied on each other.”
Maurice’s oldest brother bought a small plot of land and the younger boys worked it. Maurice’s five sons – David is the youngest – continued farming and diversified. Together. “We knew we were all better off if we acted as a unit,” David says. “We’re all stronger standing as one.” So of course the kids were tight – that’s all they knew. Well, that and adventure. In the Crapo household, family and adventure go hand-in-hand. And when one led to the ultimate tragedy, the other helped them through the darkest time.

Seeds of Adventure
The Crapos settled in St. Anthony, in eastern Idaho near Montana and Wyoming. Nestled in an arid valley, the area is bordered by the Grand Tetons, the Continental Divide and the famous St. Anthony Sand Dunes.
From birth, Jeremy and Kurtis had minds for mischief and a passion for speed cultivated by their parents. Snapshots tell the story: In one photo, the giggling toddlers sample dirt from a potted plant. Another picture features the pair riding two-up on a tricycle. In a third, Patsy and David hold an infant Jeremy in front of David’s 1967 red Corvette.
“I always loved hot cars and drag racing,” David admits, adding that he grew up riding his dirtbike in the dunes and also dabbled in cross-country snowmobile racing. But the boys had another influence: Mom. Patsy taught the two to ski – by towing them behind the family’s diesel Cadillac while Kimberly served as spotter.
Then there was the time Jeremy and Kurtis built a track for their 60cc bikes, with the course cutting right through the house. “We jumped the front steps, passed through the living room and circled around the kitchen,” Kurtis remembers. “Then we’d ride out the back and off the deck.”
“I was only six or seven, but it seemed like a bad idea,” says Shaun. “You know there’s gonna be trouble when the kitchen floor has burn marks on it.”
Soon all of the kids could ride dirtbikes, and the boys proved to be proficient racers. “Shaun and I got the short end of the stick, though,” Mikael says. “When Jeremy and Kurtis outgrew their 60s and 80s, we’d inherit them. We got all their gear, too, and a lot of it was pretty beat up.”
The kids snowmobiled with their cousins, and before long the boys were racing sleds and regularly landing on the podium. The brothers excelled at the nearby West Yellowstone event, a race that would eventually change their lives.

Roots Take Hold
At first, the boys focused on cross-country competitions that were once famous throughout the West. But a growing discipline, snocross, caught their attention. In 1997, West Yellowstone served as the final stop of the MRP National snocross series, and Jeremy and Kurtis entered the Pro classes at their National debut. Kurtis had a superb weekend and scored podiums in all three divisions, including a third in Pro 440 behind winner Kirk Hibbert and fellow National series rookie Blair Morgan.
Their performances earned Jeremy and Kurtis Polaris factory rides for the 1997-98 season, and they moved to Minnesota. Both missed the mountains and rugged country of their Idaho home. The change in scenery was particularly difficult on Jeremy, who, after two years in the Midwest, gave up his promising racing prospects to return West.
“I seem to lose all desire to race in the Midwest,” Jeremy said in late 1999. “It’s not as fun, and I just wasn’t into it. Out here [in Idaho], everyone gets along well, we all have fun and there’s so much great stuff to do.”
While Kurtis and then Shaun – who Jeremy had predicted would be the most talented Crapo snocrosser from the time the youngest brother was 14 – forged successful National careers, Jeremy trained as an electrician, raised a family with wife Lindsay and relished his surrounding wilderness. When he wasn’t working, Jeremy was usually teaching his daughter Taylor and son Bridger to ride dirtbikes and sleds or pursuing his many outdoor hobbies.
“I think Jeremy felt the most at peace in the outdoors; it was home to him and where he belonged,” Lindsay says. “We loved being outside with the kids, and some of our best times were in the last couple of years when we’d go camping with them.”
Jeremy occasionally attended races, and he was at the March 2006 West Yellowstone National when Kurtis captured Pro Stock, his first career National victory. Shaun later capped off an incredible weekend for the Crapos by claiming Pro Open. “Jeremy was so tickled to see Kurtis and Shaun win,” says David. “That’s all he could talk about; he was so proud of them.”
When Kurtis would return home after another snocross season, he and Jeremy fly-fished, hunted, rode horses and worked together. “They were so funny,” says Emily Crapo, Kurtis’ wife of nearly 10 years. “They were best friends, but they were so competitive in everything they did. No matter what they were doing together, they always made it a competition.”
That mentality followed them into the St. Anthony Dunes. Expert dirtbike riders, the brothers’ talents were featured in action sports movies like “Children of a Metal God.” They would frequently try to one-up each other out in the sand, and in 2000 they had a mid-air collision that left Kurtis with a broken back.