Minnesota Crews Harvest Ice for Winter Carnival Ice Palace

SPICER, Minn. (AP) - Crews are busy making thousands of big ice blocks at a lake in central Minnesota that will be used to build the ice palace at a winter carnival later this month.

Reports say workers need about 3,700 blocks to build the 70-foot-tall palace for the St. Paul Winter Carnival, which begins Jan. 25. Each block weighs nearly 600 pounds each.

Mike Gutknecht works for Park Construction of Minneapolis, which is the general contractor for the project. He says Green Lake is known for creating thick, clear ice.

Workers dust off ice on the lake with a sweeping machine, use a specialized saw to score the ice and then use a chisel tool to free the blocks.

Ice from Green Lake was last used for the St. Paul palace in 1992.