A few weeks ago, we told you about an ice castle coming to Wisconsin for the first time. But up in Eagle River, they’ve been building an ice castle using ice mined from nearby Silver Lake for almost 90 years.
The castle’s timing is always a bit fluid and dependent on weather and ice conditions, but they usually hope to have it up by the first weekend after New Year’s Eve. The castle is a bit later this season, but the blocks were all cut and harvested this week.
All photos are courtesy of the Eagle River Chamber of Commerce Facebook Page. Make sure you check over there for live videos of excavation and construction.
The first Eagle River Ice Castle was built in 1933 as part of their regular winter festival. It wasn’t built during WWII, but otherwise has remained a constant part of the Eagle River winter experience.
Various people have taken charge of the castle over the years, but for the last 30 or so, it’s been the Eagle River Volunteer Fire Department that’s constructed the landmark.
Each year the design varies, but the coolest part of this ice castle is that the ice comes directly from nearby Silver Lake. The ice is scored and then cut and harvested.
The ice is measured, scored and cut into even blocks. Each block is 20 x 20 x 10 inches.
The tools used to harvest the ice haven’t changed much over the years.
The blocks are then gathered and loaded.
As you can see from this vintage photo, the process is basically unchanged.
One big innovation is the conveyor belt that moves the ice out of the freezing lake and into waiting trucks.
These poor folks manually slid the ice.
But these days a lot of that work is automated.
Each block weighs in the neighborhood of 65 pounds.
The number of blocks varies depending on the final design, but approximately 3,000 ice blocks are harvested, hauled and then stacked to create the ice castle.
The work is all done by volunteers and the ice castle is truly a feat created by the community coming together.
If it weren’t for some dated clothing, it would be difficult to discern the difference between some of these vintage pictures and pictures taken just this week.
The blocks are hauled in to town and then construction begins.
One method of testing out ideas and designing the castle? Using stackable building block toys.
The ice castle is a labor of love and it combines brute strength with the beauty and artistry of the completed, whimsical ice castle.
No one knows what the new design will be or what innovations might be added this year. Colored lights were added to enhance the magic a few years ago, but there’s always room for new and interesting changes to this tradition.
The castle usually remains standing into mid-February, when whatever hasn’t already melted is dismantled.
For more information about the Eagle River Ice Castle and it’s history, make sure to check out this page from the Eagle River Chamber of Commerce.
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