Sakatah Carvers continue tradition

The Waseca Sleigh and Cutter parade will be Feb. 28, but the Sleigh and Cutter Festival is already underway, with a special display at the Waseca County Historical Society covering the “history and highlights” of Waseca’s unusually durable celebration, now in its 76th year. Bingo nights at Barden’s Bar in Waseca are every Monday beginning at 6:30 through the end of February.

 

Beginning mid-January, clues will be released for the annual “Frosty” and “Medallion” contests. Clues will be published in the Pioneer and announced on KOWZ Radio to assist in the tasks of identifying which Waseca area individual has been selected as this year’s secret “Frosty” and searching for the Sleigh and Cutter medallion, which is hidden on public property somewhere within Waseca city limits. A cash prize is awarded to the first person or group to complete the challenges. Winners are officially announced during the Sleigh and Cutter dinner and dance, set for Feb. 27.

 

Fireworks over Clear Lake will be after dark on Feb. 14.

 

Ice carving will take place the weekend of Jan. 29 and 30, with the finished sculpture on display afterward as long as weather allows. Adam Scholljegerdes of Sakatah Carvers out of Faribault reveals the carving and display will be near the Waseca County Veterans Memorial on the county courthouse lawn, rather than the parking lot of the city public safety building, where it’s been in the past. Starting times for the carving will be made available as they are determined.

 

Scholljegerdes, a 2000 graduate of Waseca High School, now owns and operates Sakatah Carvers Signs and Creations in Faribault. His partner in ice carving endeavors is Joe Christenson. Scholljegerdes says the two of them have worked together on every project. He also mentions his work in ice carving has waxed and waned over time. Although he and Christenson once found themselves doing a fair number of carvings of various sizes over the course of a winter, they now do only a few because the majority of Scholljegerdes’ time is devoted to his sign business.

 

He says he looks forward to the project for the Sleigh and Cutter festival each year because, in a way, it’s where his career as an ice carver began. He and Christenson had created sculptures for the St. Paul Winter Carnival a few times when long-time Sleigh and Cutter president Ken Borgmann reached out asking whether they would be willing to create an ice sculpture for the Waseca celebration in 2012.

 

The project that year was the largest Scholljegerdes has ever taken part in: an ice sleigh large enough to seat six people and a horse positioned in front as though pulling it. Looking back on it, Scholljegerdes remembers the piece as a learning experience. “I had my family members helping,” he recalls. “We were working with rather primitive tools compared to what we have now, so we weren't very efficient.

 

“But it turned out very well.”

 

A sculpture he remembers with gratitude and pride was in 2020, a memorial to Tracy Kruger, who was 40 years old in February of 2007 when an intruder entered his rural Waseca home and–apparently at random–shot him, his wife Hilary, and his 13-year-old son Alec. Tracy and Alec died; Hilary was critically wounded and spent months in the hospital.

 

The memorial sculpture, Scholljegerdes recalls, consisted of replicas of two of  the snowmobiles Tracy Kruger restored and raced, based on input from his brother, Theron. Scholljegeres said it was humbling to be part of something so meaningful, and he found it deeply fulfilling that the carvings turned out to be near-perfect replicas of two of Tracy’s machines. Alongside them was a Herter’s snowmobile in honor of those machines having been manufactured in Waseca.

 

Scholljegerdes says preliminary conversations are for this year’s design to include snowflakes, with the intent of matching the theme of the newly installed lighted decorations along downtown State Street. He mentions that he can use some of the computer-based tools which help him operate his sign business as he conceives and refines the design. Good plans are necessary, he points out, so he knows how much ice will be needed.

 

Scholljegerdes reveals the ice used for sculptures is specially ordered, and comes in the form of 300-pound blocks made from water run through the reverse osmosis process to minimize air bubbles and impurities. Ice cut from a lake, he says, would include more air, be white rather than transparent when carved, and would melt more quickly. Sculpting ice is sold in uniform-sized blocks that are 40 inches long, 10 inches wide and 20 inches tall. They are easily set side by side because of their square edges and can then be carved as a single piece.

 

The process begins with chainsaws–Scholljegerdes says he uses the same ones for ice carving as he does for cutting wood. With the main shape formed, he and Christenson then use grinders and, eventually, chisels to create fine details.

 

He says they typically spread the work on large sculptures–including all of them made for the Sleigh and Cutter festival–over a two-day time span so that they can take their time and do their best work.

 

“I look forward to coming to Waseca each year,” Scholljegerdes says. “I enjoy seeing the familiar faces. It feels good to be part of something so lasting.”