Two workers from Schrom’s Excavating truck in snow from around the Town of Minocqua while another uses an excavator to dump that snow inside a circle of 10-foot-high fencing.
Another two workers stomp on top of the snow packing it down while spraying it with water from the Minocqua Fire Department truck to help freeze everything into place.
It’s the first of three layers that make the 30-foot Snowmy Kromer.
“We are so excited to have this snowman back. It's been a number of years,” said President and CEO of the Minocqua Area Visitors Bureau Krystal Westfahl. She explains that the town needs early snow and a lot of it to make Snowmy.
“This is just like the icing on the cake that after two years of no snow. We got all these fun things that we get to put up and really talk about and be excited about,” said Westfahl.
The last two winters have been among the lowest snowfall totals. A lot of winter recreation has been on hold or limited because of that, leading to an impact on local businesses.
With the early snowfall this year, people are looking forward to a more classic Northwoods winter.
“I think we're all coming out of a depression that we've all been in together. Having winter and winter sports, we're the frozen tundra, right? This is all about being a Wisconsinite, is being in these frozen, snowy landscapes. And quite frankly, I think all of us missed it,” said Westfahl.
This is Minocqua Fire Chief Rich Carani’s first time helping build Snowmy Kromer.
“It’s quite the project,” said Carani. “We try to get involved in whatever community projects we can. It's good to have the fire department out, be a town resource, wherever we can be.”
Snowmy Kromer is a long-standing Minocqua tradition with his four-foot-long pipe and size 96 Stormy Kromer hat.
Westfahl is particularly excited for this year as they have been waiting for the right snow to unveil some changes.
“We had a custom-made brand-new Stormy Kromer hat made two years ago, and then we had no snow for several years, so we have been sitting on this big surprise for several years,” said Westfahl. “We're very excited. Bob Jaquart with the Stormy Kromer Mercantile will be here on Friday to help place this brand-new hat.”
Snowmy Kromer also has a new home at Torpy Park. This way people can watch on the webcam as it’s being built and see it throughout the winter.
Westfahl says the giant snowman is important as a community tradition as well as a way to get more people to come to Minocqua during the winter, like they saw after Snowmy Kromer went viral in 2015.
“People from around the world were seeing him. So, not only is he just this really great symbol of Northwoods camaraderie and Northwoods excitement and winter fun, he also is this really great marketing tool for us, which quite unexpectedly happened,” said Westfahl.
Snowmy Kromer takes about three days to build and should be done in time for this weekend. It will stay up as long as the weather cooperates.
