Charlie Hall, the 47th King Boreas of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, in 1983, challenged me to find the 18-foot-tall granite monument dedicated to the 1986 Ice Palace at Lake Phalen. That was the ice palace built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the carnival.
“You can’t find it,’’ Charlie told me.
“I’ll find it,’’ I said.
“Dead-end road,’’ Charlie told me.
“I’ll find it,’’ I said. I like a treasure hunt as much as the next guy.
The point being that Charlie and his band of hale-fellows-well-met wish to relocate the monument to Rice Park, where people could actually see it and read the names of virtually every volunteer and sponsor who helped bring about what is called “Labor of Love.’’ Hall believes a special urgency is needed, what with the Super Bowl inspiring a bigger Carnival than usual, a whopper.
I didn’t find it. That is, at first I didn’t find it. I drove down Phalen Drive all the way to the last parking lot on the west shore of the lake and didn’t find it. I parked and got out to walk. Even with some photos that Charlie had sent me, I wasn’t seeing it. I went to the pavilion where some workers were setting up concessions. Nobody in the pavilion had ever seen the monument. In fact, everybody I asked on a Saturday morning had no idea what I was talking about.
As I left the pavilion I flagged down a passing St. Paul police officer. He was helpful. He was Mark, but I didn’t catch his last name. I sat in his rig while he pulled up Lake Phalen Park on the Google and searched and searched. Nothing.
“I’ll keep walking,’’ I said. “I’m parked in the last lot.’’
“I’ll give you a ride,’’ he said.
We were headed north on Phalen Drive, the golf course to our left, when I caught the tallest spire of the monument in my peripheral vision.
“There it is!’’
I had driven right past it on my way in. Didn’t see it. It’s just off the road, but in the full flowering of spring it is shadowed by the trees around it to the effect that it is in a grotto of sorts. The copper let me out and I wished him a slow day.
It’s a marvelous piece of granite, with twin spires, one 18 feet tall. Charlie went around the country to find the best material. He spent his working life building car dealerships, restaurants and bowling alleys. He knew how to shop. Charlie paid $60,000 out of his own pocket to bring the granite treasure about in 1987. He was reimbursed by 12 businesses impressed by the grandiosity and the memory.
But there it sits in its anonymity, unseen.
“Why was it put there in the first place?’’
“I was great friends with the mayor, George Latimer,’’ Charlie said, “and we kicked it around and George said we might as well put it as close as possible to the actual palace of 1986. We didn’t know.’’
They didn’t know that Phalen Drive would cease to connect to Highway 61 as it was allowed to do in 1986 so people could drive by the illuminated palace. It’s now a dead-end road. A golfer hitting an errant shot might see it, but there is little reason for anybody else to even wonder about it.
Charlie loves the monument. He loves the volunteers and sponsors who brought about that colossus. He loves St. Paul. He has been working for years to get the attention of the city to allow him to bring it downtown and put it in Rice Park.
“Charlie and his people will pay every nickel of the move and the lighting and the installation,’’ I told Mayor Chris Coleman. “What do they need to do?’’
“Well, he’s got the first part right,’’ Coleman said, meaning the cost of the move. “It’s an interesting opportunity. Maybe Harriet Island?’’
No. Charlie wants Rice Park. He wants to honor the 1,000 volunteers who gave their time and talent to build the palace. He wants people to be able to read their names.
“We will work with the Parks Department,’’ Coleman said. “We’ll get on it.’’
At 86, Charlie can look back and know he has given much to the city. He didn’t come late to that monument. He was the chairman of the 1986 Winter Carnival Committee that got the palace built in the first place. That monument would be a lovely addition to Rice Park.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray is heard from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays on 1500ESPN.
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