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No Ice Castle This Year In Eagle River

Eagle River Chamber of Commerce

Mother Nature has again put an end to the Eagle River Ice Castle.

The Ice Castle is constructed each year by the Eagle River Fire Department. They take 3000 blocks of ice from Silver Lake and construct the attraction in downtown Eagle River.

But Fire Chief Pat Weber says even with the recent cold weather, it doesn't look favorable to  safely get the ice from Silver Lake. He says the weather has alternated between warm and cold but an inspection this week didn't result favorably...

"....I went to the lake today, there's still pockets of water trapped underneath the snow between layers of ice that we just don't feel that it's going to freeze up. I know they're calling for colder weather next week again, but we're just out of time...."

 He says in November we received a large amount of heavy, wet snow which suprised Weber to later all melt away...

"....we were doing pretty good, then last weekend with the six inches of additional snow, it weighed down the ice and caused it to flood and create some slush. It's just not feasible this year...."

He says many members of the fire department volunteer for upcoming Snowmobile Derby, so they have a deadline to get the castle done before that time, and with iffy conditions on  Silver Lake, time and conditions worked against the castle's construction.

Weber says in the 1980's when the project began they successfully built the castle for many years, but in recent years it has become harder to get the castle built.

The Ice Castle was built last year, but the prior two years it was not.

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