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St. Paul Winter Carnival auctions off historic memorabilia
Little pieces of St. Paul Winter Carnival history are on the move to help fund this year’s carnival. The 138th Winter Carnival takes over Rice Park in about a month -- from Jan. 25 through Feb. 4. It’s a big undertaking costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and now, the first 137 carnivals will be helping out with expenses.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Little pieces of St. Paul Winter Carnival history are on the move to help fund this year’s carnival.
The 138th Winter Carnival takes over Rice Park in about a month -- from Jan. 25 through Feb. 4. It’s a big undertaking costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and now, the first 137 carnivals will be helping out with expenses.
King Boreas and the Queen of Snows have presided over 10 days of annual winter festivities in St. Paul since 1886, shortly after a New York reporter wrote that Minnesota was as uninhabitable as Siberia.
"So the people in this area got together and said, 'We're going to show them,'" said St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation CEO Lisa Jacobson. "And they created the St. Paul Winter Carnival."
Of course, snow sculptures disappear by the time spring fires up to take over from winter. Ice palaces have become too expensive to build every year. And parades march into memory.
However, some memorabilia has survived for more than a century, and a lot of them stayed at the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation offices. The souvenirs, such as posters, plates, and patches, have collected dust for decades until an online auction this month.
"Rather than it being just piled up here at the Landmark Center for no one to enjoy, it can get on the walls of people who love the Winter Carnival," Jacobson said.
The plan is to sell off 50 pieces a month, so the foundation can save money on office space and fund the future simultaneously. And without giving too much away, one of the first buyers paid top dollar for an especially meaningful proclamation.
"He wanted it," Jacobson said. "So he came to pick it up, and it's going to be under the Christmas tree for his wife, whose relative was a part of the Winter Carnival many, many years ago."
The first auction ended at noon Wednesday and netted about $8,000.
The next one starts in early January, in time for people to get the items before the carnival starts.