Posts Tagged ‘Saranac Lake Winter Carnival’

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Memories Submissions Sought

Hungry Bear Publishing is seeking essays and photos for an upcoming book of favorite memories of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, Publisher Andy Flynn told the the weekly Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee meeting January 20th. Titled “Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Memories,” the project will help raise fund for the Committee.

“This will be a book by the community, for the community,” Flynn, who will collect the submissions and be the editor of the project, said in a press release to the Almanack. “Since the Winter Carnival is the most community-oriented festival I’ve ever seen, this book must reflect the heart and soul of Saranac Lake. It needs to be written by the community.”

Here is the rest of Flynn’s announcement:

“Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Memories” will be a memory book, not a complete history of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, which traces its roots to a small festival in 1897 during the tuberculosis-curing days. The Pontiac Club organized and hosted the event during the early years. The Ice Palace , a long-held Winter Carnival tradition, was first built for the 1898 Carnival, when hundreds of visitors traveled to Saranac Lake for the festivities by train.

“The Committee was very excited to learn of Andy’s plans,” said Jeff Dickson, Chairman of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee. “Winter Carnival is all about the creation of memories and everyone who has ever attended has some. Unfortunately, most of them get lost with the passage of time. This book’s value to us as a fundraiser is wonderful, and the personal history that it will present is even more exciting.”

Every good story has a theme. Residents are asked to pick one memorable moment from a past Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, good or bad, and explain why it was so memorable. Give details, give names. Describe the scene. How did it affect you or others? Were you a king or queen? If you choose to write about a Winter Carnival artifact, explain where you got it or how it was used and submit a photo.

“If you ever wanted to have your essay or photo published in a book, this is your chance,” Flynn said. “In return for the community’s donation of memories, we will donate 10 percent of the book’s proceeds to the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee to help ensure that this annual event stays around for a very long time.”

People may submit essays of no longer than 450 words and/or a maximum of two photographs. Poems and illustrations are also accepted. The inside pages will be black and white. Entry/permission forms and Rules & Directions are available as PDF downloads at www.HungryBearPublishing.com or by contacting Andy Flynn at 40 McClelland St. , Saranac Lake , NY 12983, (518) 891-5559, or email at adkattic@yahoo.com. Entry/permission forms must be filled out and sent via snail mail to Hungry Bear Publishing, while essays and photos must be sent via email. Specifications are listed on the Rules & Direction form.

“Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Memories” will be released in the fall of 2010, just in time for the Christmas shopping season. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2010.

Cover photos for the book were provided by Mark Kurtz Photography, of Saranac Lake . Mark Kurtz is the official photographer for the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival. One photo shows the fireworks display over the 2008 Ice Palace , and the other photo shows one of the famous Lawn Chair Ladies, Saranac Laker Sue Grimm, in action during the 2009 Gala Parade.

Based in Saranac Lake, Hungry Bear Publishing produces community-based publications and programs promoting the heritage and towns of the Adirondack region. In 2008, the company was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from the Upstate History Alliance for the Adirondack Attic History Project, which Andy Flynn founded in 2003 to actively preserve Adirondack history by collecting artifact-based, human-interest stories. Those stories have been compiled into the five-part “Adirondack Attic” book series. Hungry Bear Publishing also produces the Meet the Town community guide series and most recently published the re-print version of “Mostly Spruce and Hemlock,” the classic history of Tupper Lake by Louis Simmons, a project that was a fundraiser for the Goff-Nelson Memorial Library.


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Sunday, February 15, 2009

2009 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ends

The Saranac Lake 2009 Winter Carnival has ended. After the initial theme, “Hearts Afire,” confused locals–was it about tattoo art? 1970s soft rock record covers?–and failed to attract underwriting from leading antacid manufacturers, the carnival committee settled on the theme, “Pirates of the Adirondacks.” Appropriate in a region where self-image often involves lawlessness, affinity for alcohol, and (in the case of real estate developers) plunder.

If the economy doesn’t turn around soon, expect to see many of the parade day costumes reused come Halloween.


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Friday, February 6, 2009

This Week’s Top Adirondack News Stories


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Saturday, January 31, 2009

This Week’s Top Adirondack News Stories


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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Valentine’s Day Blizzard of 2007

TourPro has beaten us to the storm round-up here, so we’ll go back to shoveling – it’s time to take Adirondack Musing’s advice and get a Wovel while they are on sale.

Also, while you’re over at Adirondack Musing’s blog, take a look at his recent posts of photos of the 2007 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival’s Ice Palace; Here is our own Adirondack Almanack post about last year’s event (with some Almanack history goodness).

Musing is one of our favorite blogs so here is a list of some recent posts we’ve found interesting:

On Ticonderoga Airport Security:

One can argue that since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, airline and airport security have been improved significantly. It is also clear that “Homeland” security funds are not being spent in the most logical way.

For example, the Ticonderoga, NY airport is getting fenced in to the tune of $800,000 funded by homeland security funds. One reason for the fencing is to keep local drag racers off the runway. But maybe they are worried that terrorists might take over the old fort in Ticonderoga and wage war on the local populace.

Also from Adirondack Musing:

Low Frequency Noise and Wind Turbines

You Are One of the Richest People on Earth

The Past Was Better and I’m Not a Bigot

Michael Moore’s Promises to Conservatives

On Broadband Internet Penetration in The US

Musing’s Favorite Place – Crown Point on Lake Champlain

Adirondack Musing is just one of the region’s great blogs – check out the other Adirondack blogs at the right and the Bloglines Adirondack feeds here.

On a related note, it looks like the Adirondack Boys have left the room.


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Friday, February 3, 2006

Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Kicks Off Today

Since 1897 the people of Saranac Lake have been throwing a midwinter party – the 109th Saranac Winter Carnival begins today. According to their website:

The Winter Carnival’s origins can be found in Saranac Lake’s history as a world-famous health resort. In 1897, the first year of the event, the village was already a thriving community nestled deep in the Adirondack wilderness, its pristine setting providing rejuvenation for hundreds of tuberculosis sufferers drawn from all over North America. In the course of “taking the cure” here, many patients experienced a renewed passion for life, and took every opportunity – in every season – to explore the natural beauty that surrounded them.

The long, cold Adirondack winters offered an array of snow-covered mountains and ice-covered lakes, begging to be enjoyed on skis, sleds and skates. Thus, to break winter’s chill and to promote “outdoor sports and games”, the Pontiac Club was formed in 1896, and a year later, they sponsored the first “Mid-Winter Carnival”.

The first Winter Carnival was a two-day affair that sponsored skating races, a parade and an “ice tower” – features that have been, in one form or another, part of every Carnival since.

This coming week (Feb. 3-12, 2006) will feature the “The Roaring 20′s” theme (that’s the decade, not the band) and will include two parades and two displays of fireworks along with:

Sports: Innertube, skating, and nordic and alpine ski races at Dewey Mountain and Mount Pisgah, skating races, snow volleyball, broomball, hockey, and snowshoe softball

Culture: Dramatic presentations by the Pendragon Theatre, a murder-mystery dinner theater, “an old-time amateur revue in the historic Harrietstown Town Hall, a Main Street Festival, a bevy of dinners, dances, receptions and concerts, and a slide show presentation.”

There will also be a display of traditional logging in the Adirondacks at the Saranac Lake Civic Center, but the centerpiece is the Ice Palace built using many of the old ice harvesting techniques:

The palace was an outgrowth of the village’s ice industry, which, in the days before electric refrigerators, harvested ice from local lakes for use in ice boxes across the country and around the world. Despite some refinements in machinery, the Palace is still constructed in much the same manner as it was in 1898, the first year it was built.

Legend has it though that the Palace was created to house the Winter Carnival Mascot Sara the Snowy Owl.

About six weeks before the Carnival, an ice field is marked off on Pontiac Bay on Lake Flower; once a suitable ice thickness has been achieved, cutting with long ice saws begins. The blocks taken from the lake are two feet wide and four feet long, are anywhere from one-and-a-half to three feet thick, and weigh between four and eight hundred pounds!

These are moved onshore via a conveyor belt, and are maneuvered into place with “peaveys” – metal-tipped poles with hinged metal hooks – and ice tongs. The blocks are secured to one another with a “mortar” made of slush. While designs may vary from year to year, each palace has, on average, over 1500 blocks in it, and ranges from 70 to 90 feet in length and 40 to 60 feet in height. Within each design is an array of colored lights, that each night transforms the Palace into a vivid sculpture of ice and light!

Here are some links:

Early Ice Palace Postcard

Winter Carnival Profile from North Country Public Radio

Photo Gallery from the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce

Photo Gallery from WNBZ Saranac Lake (2003)

Ice Palace, a children’s book by Deborah Blumenthal

Flickr Ice Palace Search (Includes Others Beyond Saranac Lake)

UPDATE 2/8/06: Adirondack Musing is posting some photos of the construction of this year’s Ice Palace.


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