February 7–13, 2007, Number 430
Statue Construction and Nighttime Statue slideshows can be viewed from the Winter Carnival website.
Winter Carnival Snow Statues
With only a couple of days left until Winter Carnival officially starts, many people are hard at work on their month-long statues. These statues were started back in January when temperatures were high and snowfall was low. Now with all the snow the Keweenaw has been getting in the last week, along with the bitter cold temperatures, the sculptors aren’t near as worried about Carnival as they once were.
During halftime of the Super Bowl on Sunday, I was able to sit down and talk with one of the brothers of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity who is a fourth year student this year. His job on the statue since he became a brother has been to work on the title block. He said he likes the position because after doing it for a number of years, he knows his job well and knows what needs to be done; not to mention he is not a huge fan of heights. When asked about the snow situation, he said it has surely been an interesting year. In the beginning of the year, they were struggling to find enough. Between the warm weather and lack of snowfall, finding good clean snow was not easy. Since the cleanliness of the snow is used when scoring the statues, the brothers would go out and fill up their trucks with whatever clean snow they could find to bring back to the site.
When asked about the current weather situation in Houghton, all he could say is that it would have been nice to have all this snow about three weeks ago. Although it is quite cold outside, it is nice to not have to go looking for snow to finish the statue.
With an estimated eighty hours of work remaining on the statue, the time for the brothers to relax is almost in sight. The Delta Sigma Phi snow statue can be seen on the statue web cam found here.
For those of you who will be able to make it to the All Nighter on Wednesday, you will be able to see firsthand the large blocks of snow and ice become detailed sculptures. You will also be able to witness the One Nighter statues going from a pile of snow to a work of art. For anyone else able to make it to Michigan Tech after Wednesday, you will be able to view the final statues in all their luster and glory. If you or someone you know is heading up to Michigan Tech for Winter Carnival, make sure to drive safely and dress warm (layering works best to cut the wind).
If there are ever any topics that you feel should be addressed, please send me a personal email and I will try my best to include that in my future articles.Until next week,
- Michigan Technological University
- 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295
- 906-487-1885