You might go down to Lake Flower to cut and stack ice with friends and strangers. On breaks, you visit over snacks and lunch provided by Lakeview Catering, the Women’s Civic Chamber and St. Joe’s. Gradually, an ice palace rises, and soon, no one is a stranger. Or you might think of a crazy idea for the parade. Then you get on the phone. You ask around for a vehicle, a trailer, props, costumes, a generator and a sound system. You cajole people to march with you and you argue about the music. The big day comes, and you dance together down Main Street.

The Winter Carnival Committee develops countless activities throughout the community, forging a network of relationships in the process. To make something happen for Carnival, you spend a lot of time leaning on others. In the course of a few weeks, you call people you don’t know, people twice your age or half your age, and people who probably don’t vote like you do. You talk to people who are new to town, and people whose families have been here for generations. (They tend to be the most helpful, by the way.) You ask for assistance, and people happily step forward if they can. Together, you laugh at the meaningless thing you are working so hard to accomplish.

This messy, ridiculous process started in Saranac Lake almost 130 years ago. Back then, we were a community built around caring for people sick with tuberculosis. Most of the doctors and nurses had also been patients at one time, so they knew what it was like to be sick, and that made them especially kind.

Back in the TB times, for a couple weeks, in the darkest hours of the year, people put aside the work of healing as best they could, and they embraced the life of Carnival. They built huge, beautiful ice palaces with no heavy equipment. People dressed in gorgeous costumes and ice skated by candlelight. Elaborate floats and amazing athletes dazzled enormous crowds. Doctors got really serious about curling.

Dr. Blanchet, Dr. Trembley, Mr. Kernochan and Mr. Smith (Courtesy of the Adirondack Research Room)

Perhaps our history as a healing community plays a role in keeping Winter Carnival traditions alive. The cure cottage industry thrived thanks to the work of so many members of the community, from cooks and cleaners, to shopkeepers and caretakers. People knew how to build things and fix things in any kind of weather. Skills and tools were passed down in families, from one generation to another. A good number of today’s Ice Palace workers are descendants of those families.

I thought about the talented people that make Carnival possible on my drive home, after a delightful visit with one of Carnival’s legendary helpers, Don Rumble.

Winter Carnival won’t solve the world’s very real problems, but it’s a tradition that just might hold us together despite them. Carnival makes space for us to ask for help and to receive it, and that’s a gift for all involved.

Coming back from Bloomingdale, I drove past the Ice Palace. It’s going up like a champ in the nice cold weather. I looked for the helpers, and I saw them everywhere.

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Undated postcard (Provided photo — Historic Saranac Lake Collection, Courtesy of Ann Pecora Diamond)

In appreciation for irreplaceable Saranac Laker and intrepid IPW, Bill Madden. Bill and his wife Heidi are serving as Grand Marshalls of Winter Carnival this year, a well-deserved honor.

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Amy Catania is the executive director of Historic Saranac Lake.

Don Rumble in his shop in Bloomingdale, January 2025 (Provided photo)

Ice palace workers, Jan. 24, 2025 (Provided photo — Historic Saranac Lake)