Winter Carnival 2019

Back in the late 19th Century, 1897, to be exact, Winter Carnival in Saranac Lake, NY, began. People from across the country came here with the hope of being cured of tuberculosis. The air was crisp and clean, pristine, lending itself to a cure.
The idea of WC was to give people an opportunity to take advantage of the ice on the lakes, the great white mountain peaks seen in every direction.

However, the winter being so long and so demanding, people were being killed by the its length and depth. So an idea was brought about to do something to help the winter move along, thus came the idea of Winter Carnival. It started out in its first year as a one day happening. A skating party followed by a dance.

If TB didn't kill people, the length and breadth of the winter might do the trick. So, what to do about cabin fever. Someone came up with the idea of a festival, in this case, a carnival.

And all these  years later, what started as one day festivities, is now a ten day extravaganza. 



1. Clearing the ice of snow. Snow is an excellent insulator, so moving it off the ice allow the ice to thicken faster. It is about eight inches now, what is wanted is for the ice to be thicker, say, twelve inches. A few days of lower, well, very low temperatures, will mature the ice to the ideal level. 

2. Swirling around and around.

2. The man with the ice saw. This machine has been in use since the 1940's. 

2. Finished for the day. Taking the machine back to the garage where it is stored in a warm temperature. 

2. What a day. What a cold say, as you can see in this man with the frozen beard. Twelve below zero and still, working the ice for the Ice Palace was carried on. Each of the people working this aspect of Winter Carnival, as is the case in all aspects of Winter Carnival, are volunteers.

2. Vehicles moved in under the cover of a night of snow.

2. in all asp

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2.  Every person involved in building this Ice Palace is a volunteer. The whole town turns out to help out. Those that are not able to ask, "How is the Ice Palace going?"

Moving the ice along, drawing it to shore and into position for Cliff to pick it out.

2. The ice is taken, block by block, placed one at a time onto a tractor sidling up to take the next one, snow falling to enhance the experience.

2. This machine is a logger, donated by Paul Smith's College, driver and all. This gets the blocks up to the height needed. Later, as the Ice Palace gets higher, a crane comes into use. We'll see that later.