Ice Palace in Detroit Lakes, MN!

Amy Erickson is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Ice Palace Detroit Lakes.

Donation protected

First some history…in February 2017 Detroit Lakes was chosen as the source for all the ice for the St. Paul Winter Carnival’s giant ice palace that was to be built on the grounds of the State Capitol in conjunction with that “big game” that’s going to be in Minneapolis. A DL steering committee was quickly formed and we got rockin’! DL is a great community and we’re proud of our ice harvesting heritage (Detroit Lakes used to supply ice for refrigerated train cars that went all over the country). We were excited to re-live our ice harvesting days and make new history.

Then the news came from St. Paul that their plans had fallen through and we were crushed…for about a minute. We remembered that we're made from sterner stuff than that. We remembered that we are descended from people who spent the winter cutting and pulling extremely heavy blocks of ice from the lake (we have pictures and a few actual harvesters to prove it). We remembered that this community has built cool things before (the public beach, the community center, a great downtown, Detroit Mountain). And we remembered that we do not give up. And besides, Hans Gilsdorf (our super amazing resident artist) had already drawn up plans for our own ice palace and some even more amazing surprises (to be announced later). We couldn’t just toss that all away!

So folks, St. Paul or no St. Paul, we are doing it. We want to create a huge ice palace of our own on the City Beach. We want to light up West Lake Drive. But we need your help! Would you be willing to contribute a little something to make an ice palace in DL a reality? The actual ice harvesting will occur on January 11th and 12th and ice palace construction will begin shortly thereafter. The Grand Lighting of the palace is slated for February 8th and the palace wil be lit up every evening of the always-amazing Polar Fest (February 8-19th). So make a donation today and then come out and check out what we've got going on in Detroit Lakes this winter!! And if you'd like to volunteer for any of these events, contact us at [email redacted]!