![[Trending News] Franklin County attraction featured on The Weather Channel](https://i0.wp.com/bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/mymalonetelegram.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/d5/2d5a93ec-de57-5b50-b3d6-afc62102480e/67a17dab9516c.image.jpg?crop=1738%2C912%2C0%2C139&resize=1200%2C630&order=crop%2Cresize&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "[Trending News] Franklin County attraction featured on The Weather Channel")
The ice palace at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, located in the southern end of Franklin County, was featured Monday on a television broadcast of The Weather Channel.
The broadcast, which was aired several times within a few hours on the network, highlighted the effort that goes into building the ice palace. It showed workers constructing the palace, along with clips of ice being cut, ice bricks being formed and being put into place to form what is one of the biggest ice structures the county’s carnival has ever seen.
“The centerpiece if the carnival is the ice palace. It is a tradition like no other,” the broadcast began with, and informed viewers that thousands of blocks of ice are harvested each year from the northern end of Lake Flower. “It’s been that way for generations, and this year, the harvest has been terrific.”
TWC interviewed Joe Plumb, director of the Ice Palace Workers (IPW) 101, who said the weather has cooperated this year by providing cold temperatures.
“The lake has been frozen since Christmas time and it hasn’t thawed since then,” he told TWC. “We have a crew that comes down and shovels the snow off whenever necessary to let the ice keep growing and growing.”
Plumb said thanks to the solid ice, crews got started on the ice palace about a week earlier than in past years as there’s usually been a January thaw – and he described the IPW as a dedicated crew.
“We’ve got a group of 50 to 75 different members of the community that come around, some of us don’t see each other until we come here for the same cause every year, and it’s all for one goal, and it’s for the community,” he said.
The theme of this years carnival is “Music Legends,” and each year it attracted visitors from all across the North Country, other areas f New York State and also Vermont.
The Winter Carnival has been a tradition since 1897, and is one of the oldest winter carnivals in the United States.
According to the carnival’s website, in order to break winter’s chill and to promote outdoor sports and games, the Pontiac Club was formed in November 1896, and a few months later, they sponsored a one-day fancy dress winter carnival in 1897, which was expanded into the Pontiac Club Carnival in 1898, and the Winter Carnival has not been held every year. After a few years, it was held every other year.
There were also huge chunks of years in the 1920s through the early 1940s when it was not held. However, it was resurrected in the winter of 1947-48 and has been held annually since that time. The Ice Palace, which had not been built since 1920, made a comeback in 1955, according to the website.
These days, the Winter Carnival has grown into a 10-day festival that includes sports, performances, two parades and three sets of spectacular fireworks, the website reads, and the centerpiece of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival is the Ice Palace, built on the shore of Lake Flower’s Pontiac Bay at the state boat launch.
The carnival runs through Feb. 9. One of the highlights is the annual parade the takes place from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8 and goes down Broadway to LaPan Highway in Saranac Lake. For more information and a schedule of events, visit saranaclakewintercarnival.com.
The Winter Carnival has been a tradition since 1897, and is one of the oldest winter carnivals in the United States.
According to the carnival’s website, in order to break winter’s chill and to promote outdoor sports and games, the Pontiac Club was formed in November 1896, and a few months later, they sponsored a one-day fancy dress winter carnival in 1897, which was expanded into the Pontiac Club Carnival in 1898, and the Winter Carnival has not been held every year. After a few years, it was held every other year.
There were also huge chunks of years in the 1920s through the early 1940s when it was not held. However, it was resurrected in the winter of 1947-48 and has been held annually since that time. The Ice Palace, which had not been built since 1920, made a comeback in 1955, according to the website.
These days, the Winter Carnival has grown into a 10-day festival that includes sports, performances, two parades and three sets of spectacular fireworks, the website reads, and the centerpiece of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival is the Ice Palace, built on the shore of Lake Flower’s Pontiac Bay at the state boat launch.
The carnival runs through Feb. 9. One of the highlights is the annual parade the takes place from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8 and goes down Broadway to LaPan Highway in Saranac Lake. For more information and a schedule of events, visit saranaclakewintercarnival.com.