Ice palace returns to Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Bitter cold hasn't stopped thousands of people from enjoying a fleeting new marvel along St. Paul's downtown riverfront: a towering ice palace stretching an entire city block.

Trade unions provided volunteers for the ice cutting from a St. Paul lake to the building of the palace, which is 240 feet long, 75 feet high and is constructed from 27,000 blocks of ice.

The ice blocks -- each one 500 pounds -- were cut from a nearby lake to build the palace, which stands nearly eight stories high at its tallest turret. Six tons of steel reinforce it.

It's the city's first ice palace in 12 years, reviving a local tradition cut short by a $600,000 deficit run up by the 1992 version.

This year's palace, built largely by volunteers for the St. Paul Winter carnival, opened Thursday and will remain through Feb. 8.

Ice palaces have a rich history here. Rumor has it, the first was built in 1886 to mock a New York reporter who compared Minnesota to Siberia.

The 1937 ice palace had an elevator in it and at least one included a maze. The last -- built in 1992 to coincide with the Super Bowl played in Minneapolis -- drew more than 2.5 million visitors.

This year, visitors can also pay $5 to stroll through the ice palace for the first time since 1941.

Festival Director Theresa Fetsch says the plan once the festival is over is to take down the scaffolding and lights, surround the ice palace with a chain-link fence and then let it melt.