This is actually a part of my honor's project, so if you could be so kind as to include in your discussion these things:
Did you gow up in Saint Paul?
If so, what neighborhood are you from?
Are you a "transplant" to Saint Paul?
If, so from where, and what brought you here?
Are you from "across the river"?
How did you get involved in the Carnival?
Please describe how you think the Carnival reflects the Saint Paul culture.
How much do you know about the legend of the Carnival and the history of Saint Paul through the Carnival?
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In spite of such inequity the Saint Paul Winter Carnival is an event that annually infuses a local awareness within the culture of residents. Residents of the city inherently know that the Carnival is a reflection of their numerous cultures and their history. Simply put, the event has become a symbol of deep civic ethos. Terry Valentine, a lifelong resident of Saint Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood, has participated in the Carnival since childhood. Her family tradition has been to search for King Boreas’ treasure. The King’s treasure is better known as the Medallion Hunt, sponsored by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, and has been a popular part of carnival tradition since 1952. Over the years the event is simply referred to by insiders as “The Hunt” and refers to a medallion hidden in a local park. Hunters are required to decipher clues to its location which are published in the paper for twelve days during the Carnival. Mrs. Valentine described how the Winter Carnival reflects the culture of the city in this way:
“The City of St. Paul has always been about neighborhoods - though it used to be more about ethnicity. Germans in one neighborhood, the Italians in another, the Irish, the Swedes, etc. all in different neighborhoods. I've always thought of the Boreas brothers as representing the neighborhood idea of this little town city all coming together to celebrate. The fact that the Winter Carnival is a long celebration for the coldest time of the year, and is as successful as it's been for so many years, speaks of the hardiness of the people who settled here. Those that have organized the celebration each year have always provided a variety of things for people to participate in with their families and friends. The attraction of many of these events, in my opinion, is the uniqueness of the events during that time of the year.”
As Mrs. Valentine points out, the Saint Paul Winter Carnival has become an annual tradition that not only celebrates winter, but also celebrates the unique culture of the city. The problem for the historian is how to contextualize such a fluid concept such as culture. A profoundly helpful methodology has been put forth by local historian, Mary Lethert Wingerd, who has asserted that civic boundaries provide a vital element in the study of social process in civic culture. In her book, Claiming the City: Politics, Faith and the Power of Place in St. Paul, she carefully laid out local and national events in St. Paul from the 1850Â’s to the early 1920Â’s and analyzed them in respect to relationships both inside and outside the city. Her work has demonstrated that those relationships, over time, provided a strong sense of place in the culture of St. Paul residents and served as a mediating factor in the economic, political and social development of the city.
     Likewise, the Winter Carnival has also come to reflect this same sense of place by unifying diverse cultures throughout the city under a badge of civic identity. This culture developed as each part of the city adjusted to social and economic changes. In this work I will examine how civic identity emerged within the framework of the carnival and how historical actions shaped the event into a symbol of civic identity. This process occurred from the carnivals origin in 1886 and was accomplished by 1940. This period of time covers a great diversity of eras that include the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, World War I, the Great Depression and the eve of World War II. As local residents’ reacted to the events within these periods, the celebration of carnival provided an opportunity for the historian to catch a glimpse of the social culture that pervaded the city of St. Paul.
     Over the passage of time, each city neighborhood infused the carnival with its identity, and in doing so, changed the meaning of the event to a celebration of a sense of place in the city. That is not to say that every resident of St. Paul has joined in carnival festivities, nor does it mean that all residents have felt the same degree of ownership of the event. However, the Saint Paul Winter Carnival displays far more meaning to the civic identity of St. Paul residents than to their sister city to the west. History tells that this personalization of the event was intentional, if not inevitable, as the two cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis fostered a rivalry for commercialization, industry, power and national recognition.
Please tell me what you guys think about my claim.I could be wrong, but that is how I see it.
Kitch, as ou can see, I narrowed my thesis and focus a bit. Your point that my original idea on this topic was too broad and complicated was right on the money!
:smile: :smile:
How often have you had a conversation with someone that lives around here, and knows about the WC, and the phrase "This stuff doesnt happen anyplace else" comes up?
we recently took my cousin, from Texas who was in town, to McGoverns one night a couple weeks ago... he grew up spending time between here and down there, but hasnt been here probably for 15 years or so.....
as soon as he saw all the "house of vulcan" stuff, on the walls in the restaurant, he said: "Oh, damn! I forgot about all the winter carnival stuff, that saint paul does"
With a lead in like that, how can anyone not look forward to what lies on the following pages. Good luck with this. You have a real talent at getting your point across in a clear manner.
Please keep adding your pages here for us to read. Thanks
"Inherently" might be strong in relation to the rest of that sentence being about culture and history in the context of residents where one might assume all residents.
I hope the rest of us will be able to read this all when it's done.
Funny, as I read that I was thinking I just read something similar yesterday...
I took a look and sure enough, by Virginia B. Kunz:
By the beginning of the 20th century, St. Paul and Ramsey County had become leaders in a social service network that would sustain its people through World War I, Prohibition, the Depression, World War II and the rapid changes in civil, cultural and social life that would mark the decades of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and beyond.
you could be our next Virginia :smile:
For my paper I used her article on St. Paul and mpls. rivavlry and her book "St. Paul: The first 150 Years."
She was truley one of our most innovative historians.
Yes, Kitch, I am conceding to your great intellect. :smile:
TV, what word would you suggest to replace "inherently" with? I have gone through other synonyms but none seem to fit as well.
CM, I will post the entire paper, after my defense, which hopefully will be April 14th- Crucifixtion day, how appropriate. :ooh:
Nick, Thats what I think too. However, academics are very picky on personal assumptions and observations in light of "concrete" evidence (arguably there is no such thing...but that's a debate I will leave alone for now.)
I wrote a few good papers in college....even if I can't put a sentence togethor anymore..
One..."the "c" student"
two.. based on a grading curve...how can a teacher fail students based on others getting an "A"
three....was based on cheating and plagiarism
Scribe - I agree with OT. Rework the previous sentence - even if you end up dividing it into two parts. That will get the point across without the word they are finding problematic.
I have spent so long inside this paper, I can't see the obvious!
Well, actually I would enjoy the discussion but I have no training in either area to debate professors of that specialty. So best to CYA (cover my ass) and stick with what I know (at least to some degree).
TMK may see her more than me- her phone number is in my OTHER phone --- bear? when are we gonna have lunch.
hesaidshesaid
you were asking for our 'oral' histories... I thought if we/she wrote our stories here it was already giving you permission... ??
so I now take back everything I ever said :pbpt: :neutral:
wow!
But why is every page #10?
I also passed it on to our editor, hoping to get you published in the RCHS magazine. fingers crossed for a Winter edition.
The thesis was a very good history lesson for me. It reminded me of how much I do know about St Paul history and also made me well aware of how much I don't know.
And the "Daisy queen"? OMG! I never knew how much controversy surrounded the appointments of the Queen!
Thanks for posting the link and sharing it with us!
By the way, many of the credit should be shared with Me2, who was more than generous with her time and gave me unbelievable access to research material! THANKS AGAIN J!
Also, thank all of you for sharing your stories with me and your great conversations on the WC!
Alone in the park, I felt hopeful. I was certain it was here somewhere. Disturbing the peacefulness of the morning, I searched under large, heavy, fallen trees, under bushes, inside hollow logs, and anything that remotely looked like it would stand out as a hiding spot. Clearing snow as I worked, I searched this new area thoroughly. I was determined to locate and be rewarded with something of value that day. Although it was not the $10,000 cash I had hoped for, what I found that frosty morning was fit for a king, and I would treasure it always.
I was searching for the St Paul Winter Carnival Medallion. The hunt for the medallion is a tradition in this city. Every winter, the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper sponsors a treasure hunt worth $10,000 as part of a larger Winter Carnival. The treasure is hidden on public property, somewhere in Ramsey County. The first person to decipher the daily clues and find the hidden, coin-like treasure can exchange it for ten grand in cash and other prizes. There are a total of 12 clues. The Winter Carnival legend explains how the mythical figure King Boreas, who represents ice and snow, takes over St Paul in the winter in his battle with the Fire King, Vulcanus Rex, who represents warmth and summer.
Crosby Farm Regional Park is huge! Trying to find the three-inch diameter King Boreas treasure was not going to be easy in the 106 acres of natural wilderness. Most people were not even out hunting yet, since it was only the third day. The clues were rather vague. The park is one of the largest and longest running in the West End of the Highland Park area of St Paul. If the medallion was here, we were going to be searching for a long time. With nearly seven miles of walking paths, two lakes, and several miles of cliffs in the way, this was going to be a challenge!
I was keeping myself occupied until my treasure hunting friends arrived to help search. My friends are what are known to some as Cooler Crew. They are a loose knit group of friends who get together on internet chat boards and gather in real life to talk about and go out and search for the medallion. I met them through an internet site years earlier. Ian, Me2, Mucluck, and L.A. Mommy were eager to get out after the new snow to help me search. Being an internet based group, some of our nicknames are not always proper. My internet name happens to be Mrmnmikey. We all enjoy the fresh air and outdoor atmosphere of the area parks in the winter. We especially like the beauty of the frozen trees after a fresh snowfall. We enjoy scouting out the potential hiding spots early, before the masses of people show up, in search of “the med,” as we call it. After scouring the area in silence for what seemed to be a long time, I heard the clomping of boots approaching. I heard my friends laughing nearby, just before I saw them.
After the initial hugs and hellos we got down to the business of figuring out where this thing could be. The three clues seemed to be referencing some street names and the park name vaguely. We figured the hints were telling us it would be in an area that was intersected by the three points. My friend Ian happened to have a map and a global positioning system receiver known as a GPSr. In addition to being a member of the Cooler Crew, he also participates in a hobby called geocaching. Ironically his online persona is King Boreas. Geocaching involves the use of a GPSr to navigate terrain and plot out courses on a map. Users of the geocaching website generally look up locations on an online database to find “treasures” better known to geocachers as “caches.” By using an online database, made public on the internet, people who want to engage in the sport may look up locations of hidden geocaches and obtain map co-ordinates of the hiding places. The website can also be used to hide cache treasures and log the locations so that others may go out and find them.
Being as logical as we are, we decided to plot the intersection of the three locations on a map. We wanted to go to the spot where they intersected and see if there was anything to be found at that location. With the expanse of the whole park ahead of us, and nowhere better to look, off we went.
The path we took led us along a lengthy cliff on one side and a lake on the other. Along the bottom of this cliff, we saw what appeared to be a big crack in the face of the cliff. We decided to check it out. The crack was about two feet wide and seemed to go as high as 30 feet up the cliff wall. The wall went up about 100 feet. As we came closer, we noticed that we could actually get inside the crack by straddling the sides, about three feet above the bottom, and placing our feet against the walls of the sandstone fracture. The walls were very slippery, and the bottom was covered in slick ice. We had to keep our feet against the walls in order to maneuver or we would break through the icy bottom and get our feet wet. We proceeded into this crevice in a gradual uphill fashion for about 85 feet and climbed a slope of about 10 feet.
We all continued in until we saw a very beautiful site. Inside the cavern appeared to be a small round room about 20 feet in diameter. On the floor of the room was ice covered debris that had fallen from the boulevard of Shepard Road, which was about 150 feet above and behind us. The grass and weeds that had fallen down the open ceiling were encircled in ice and created beautiful, honeycombed ice patterns that had washed down from the sinkhole above. The walls went straight up. There was only one way in or out, unless one could repel with a rope from above. Every wall was covered in a thick layer of ice that looked as though it had melted and refroze several times over. It seemed as if we were in a crystallized winter wonderland befitting the legendary King Boreas himself. The spectacle of the frozen realm was an amazing sight to behold.
Ian decided, right then and there, that he was going to place a geocache into that location as soon as possible. Ian took pictures of the frost-and-ice-filled cave. Me2, Mucluck and L.A. Mommy posed like the women on the TV show CharlieÂ’s Angels. L.A. Mommy stood in front of the camera with Me2 and Mucluck directly behind her so that only the head and shoulders of the back two appeared to be sticking out of L.A. MommyÂ’s body from the front view. The picture looked like a three headed woman standing in an ice-covered cave.
Days later, when the cache hide was listed on the geocaching website, the web page for the cache carried the name “Lair of the Three-Headed Woman” and proclaimed it was hidden by King Boreas. Described in the listing for the cache, it was stated that “Corporal Ian Stevens joined Advance Agent Mrmnmikey for an early morning rendezvous.” The picture taken that day was prominently displayed.
That day in February, I realized geocaching was an extremely interesting sport. It closely resembled the hobby I was enjoying that winter day in many aspects. I also found the location to be quite unusual and wondered how many more places were out there awaiting discovery.
The next spring, and after a few conversations with Ian, I decided to buy my own GPSr and give the sport a try. I was hooked on geocaching. Since then I have found over 80 different geocaches in separate locations around the Twin Cities metro area. Some of my finds were located as far away as Hayward, Wisconsin.
While out looking for one King Boreas treasure, I discovered a different treasure- personal riches of friendship, an amazing scene, and what I hope to be a lifelong hobby. The beautiful landscapes I get to explore, the friendships IÂ’ve cultivated, and new hobby I enjoy are all fit for a king, and could never be bought for any amount of money. The King Boreas cache I discovered that day was worth more than the $10,000 King Boreas cash that I originally set out to find that day.
2 things -
that happened on January 23rd and January 24th
second thing-- you mentioned you cached as far away as Hayward, WI...the finder that year in Crosby was named Hayward :smile: funny!
Hope my instructor doesn't find out and dock my grade!