Apparently this is the 1901 Ice Palace (the first one illuminated by electricity) This detailed list of the activities of each Winter Carnival was compiled by Edna Finn, edited and extended by George DeChant and Katee Morgan Fobare.

Winter Carnival Time Line

1898 - Feb. 1 & 2 First Winter Carnival/ice tower.

1899 - First Ice Palace (Ice Fortress).

1907 - First husband and wife royalty: King Dr. E. R. Baldwin; Queen: Mrs. Mary Baldwin

1951 - First Rotary Variety Show.

1952 - First Woodsmen's Exhibition

1953 - First paid celebrity King and Queen

1968 - Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce has a contest to name Princess — Betty Jean Dufort from St. Pius X High School

1969 - North Country Community College provides a princess

1971 - Return to community member as King and Queen

1975 - First year Royalty Reception is held at Elks Club

1977 - Rotary Show is the theatre production: "Anything Goes"

- Coronation no longer part of the Rotary Show and takes place first day of Carnival

1978 - Louis P. Fobare Award, best in the parade, first awarded

1981 - First carnival button designed by Garry Trudeau

1983 - First Softball on Snowshoes

1984 - First Trudeau Award: Sue Dyer

1984 - stopped using voting machine, Winter Carnival Committee did the Selecting in 1984 & 1985

1986 - King and queen names nominated by public and selected by a committee of former kings and queens

- First son/mother King: Ronald B. Keough; Queen: Mildred Keough

1991 - First time the Royal Robes worn at outdoor events

1997 - First Interfaith Church Service.

1998 - First Sara the Snowy Owl Fable and mascot.

1999 - First Carnival with two weekends, Coronation moved to Friday. Lighting of the Palace on Saturday.

- First Murder Mystery at Hotel Saranac

- First Arts Council of Northern Adirondacks Concert at the Harrietstown Town Hall.

2002 - Ladies’ Fry Pan Toss (Sponsored by Mainely Lobster)

HOW MANY CARNIVALS HAVE THERE BEEN ANYWAY?

From the 2015 Winter Carnival Program

 By Jeff Dickson, Program Editor

This is a question we get asked a lot.  The individual asking the question is looking for a number.  What they often get is an awkward silence.  It depends on how things are counted.  First the simple answer.  The Pontiac Club was formed in 1897 to put on a winter carnival and did so on February 1 & 2, 1898 – complete with something called an Ice Tower – clearly the predecessor of our current Ice Palace.  It is therefore correct to say that the 2015 Winter Carnival is the 117th anniversary of the first Winter Carnival.  However, there is also a historical record, documented by historian Mary Hotaling, of a celebration of winter event in 1897 which included a hockey game and fancy dress skating party (which was termed in the press at the time a “carnival”).  In the spirit that bigger/higher/faster/longer is better, and acknowledging that it is a somewhat arbitrary decision we will declare this to be the 118th anniversary of the first winter carnival.

Lots of missing years, winter celebrations called by another name, winter sports athletic events and the incompleteness of the record makes simply counting Winter Carnivals a daunting task.  What makes it a carnival?  Do we need an Ice Palace?  What about a parade?  Fireworks?  Do a series of skating races constitute a carnival?  How about if we add in barrel-jumping?  If we agree that years in which there is no evidence of any winter event whatsoever should not be counted, we eliminate 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1912.  Also 1928 through 1935 and 1937 through 1945 and 1947.  (I have listed 1947 because a carnival commenced on December 31, 1947 and continued for several days into 1948.  I am counting that as the 1948 carnival.  Similarly during the winter of 1948-49.)  That eliminates 24 years from consideration.  In addition, there were 12 years in which skating races were held but there is no evidence of anything more that would qualify as a full-fledged carnival.  And finally there is the mystery of 1902.  A flyer exists which describes a carnival and lists a schedule of events but there is no evidence, either newspaper or otherwise, that it actually happened.  I’m going to count this as a no-carnival year.  

Since carnival was re-established in the winter of 1947-48, it has been an annual tradition with no further breaks in continuity.  Carnival has been held on Lincoln’s Birthday weekend (now President’s Day) since 1950.  So – by my count – this is either the 93rd Winter Carnival or the 81st Winter Carnival or the 118th anniversary of the first Winter Carnival.  And even some of these numbers are off if there actually was one in 1902.

I am fully aware that I have not cleared up the mystery.  But I have tried to give you as many facts as we have at our disposal to allow you each to decide for yourselves.  The information presented herein was extracted from research provided by then Village of Saranac Lake and Town of Harrietstown Historian Edna C. Finn in a paper dated October 1, 1993.  This was supplemented by information supplied by Mary Hotaling.  They did the rather exhaustive research, all I did was count.

 

External link:

Comments

 

Add tags