Timeline: Frozen

Nearly 140 years ago, when a New York media outlet compared St. Paul to Siberia, our civic leaders looked within and maturely brushed that dismissive dandruff right off their shoulders. And when they were done doing that, they organized the most elaborate winter carnival in the country, complete with a marketing mythology that included boreal kings and queens battling fire demons for the soul of winter. Take that, Siberia.

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1886

A smallpox outbreak forces Montreal to cancel its winter carnival, and St. Paul boosters rush to hire their ice palace architects. A. C. and J. H. Hutchison’s palace, emblazoned with electric lights, features multiple skating rinks and a warming room with a lunch counter.

1888

Designed by St. Paul architect Charles E. Joy, the third ice palace is the largest ever built, with 55,000 blocks of ice. A wedding with 6,000 guests is held within its walls. At 15 stories tall, the palace takes four months to melt.

1916

When James J. Hill dies, his son Louis succeeds him as controller of his father’s railroad empire and resurrects the Winter Carnival, now calling it the “First Annual Outdoor Sports Carnival,” a showcase for harness racing, ski jumping, and tobogganing.

1917

Honoring James J. Hill’s early trek along the Pembina Trail, the first Red River Derby is held—a grueling 522-mile dogsled race from Winnipeg to St. Paul. Albert Campbell wins, but Fred Hartman captures the hearts of the entire country when he collapses in last place.

1920

The Saturday Evening Post publishes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace,” inspired by the 1887 palace, built before Fitzgerald was born. The story’s anti-heroine, Georgian Sally Carrol Happer, has an epiphany inside the palace’s walls while visiting her fiancé’s chilly hometown.

1940

Vulcan Rex VI Ernie Reiff is the first Vulcan King to recruit a Krewe. Reiff and his wife design the garish red-and-black Vulcan costumes, complete with dastardly goatees of black greasepaint. Kreepy Krewe members leave their “mark” on cheeks along the parade route.

1952

After reading the11th of 13 clues, 41-year-old 3M employee Arthur M. Jensen finds the first Pioneer Press Winter Carnival Medallion in a treasure chest in Highland Park. He spends part of his $1,100 winnings on a new black pillbox hat for his wife.

1954

Grand Marshal Ed Sullivan is given mink-trimmed long underwear before the parade. He returns to New York the next night to host his CBS show Toast of the Town, which includes a live segment on the carnival’s Musical Jamboree broadcast from the St. Paul Auditorium.

1962

Pioneering hot-air balloonist Don Piccard organizes the world’s first hot-air balloon race for the carnival. Three balloonists compete: Ed Yost, Dick Keuser, and Tracy Barnes. Barnes wins in a craft constructed from parachutes.

1969

The carnival brings another kind of Vulcan to town—Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock from Star Trek. A sweepstakes is held with an opportunity for eight lucky ladies to join his pointy-eared eminence for breakfast at the 3 Crowns Restaurant at the Hilton.

1971

The St. Paul Jaycees revive the Klondike Kate character from the 1961 Winter Carnival, which was in itself a tribute to the historic 1890s Yukon Gold Rush saloon entertainer. Former homecoming queen Carol Carney wins the pageant by belting “Comin’ Round the Mountain.”

1986

The Centennial Winter Carnival Ice Palace is built on an island on Lake Phalen. Weather doesn’t allow its elegant central tower to reach the planned 150 feet, but 129 feet 9 inches is enough for inclusion in The Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest manmade ice structure.

1992

n order to impress overflow NFL fans traveling to the Metrodome for Super Bowl XXVI, the tallest (165 feet), most expensive ($1.9 million) ice castle yet is built, and it melts down the St. Paul Winter Carnival Association—forcing its director to resign.

2005

The Vulcans get scalded when Vulcan King Thomas Trudeau is accused of inappropriately touching three female bartenders while placing garters on them at Alary’s Bar. Background checks are instituted, and sensitivity training becomes mandatory for all Krewe members.

2018

The Super Bowl is back in Minneapolis. And, after much financial hemming and hawing, another ice palace is built, the first in almost a decade and a half—this time only 70 feet tall, comprising 4,000 blocks of ice and a ton of Ecolab branding.

2020

Kirstin Knutson is crowned Queen of the Snows, and when the pandemic forces the 2021 Winter Carnival into drive-through status, Knutson ends up keeping the title for an unprecedented two years.

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