Editor’s note: The Winter Carnival would have died in the early 20th century if it hadn’t been for Louis Hill, who almost single-handedly revived the festival. How he did it is told in ‘The Dutiful Son: Louis W. Hill, Life in the Shadow of the Empire Builder James J. Hill’ by Biloine W. Young and Eileen R. McCormack. Following are edited excerpts from chapter 12, ‘Louis as St. Paul’s First Citizen and Head of the Winter Carnival,’ reprinted with permission of the publisher, Ramsey County Historical Society. (To order the book, call 651-222-1701 or go to RCHS.com.)
Nothing displayed so well the many facts of Louis’ personality, his social and business skills, his love of sports, high jinks, and the outdoors, as the part he played in the 1916 revival of the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
Winter carnivals were held in St. Paul from 1886 through 1889, in 1896, and again in 1899, after which they stopped altogether until 1916 and 1917 when the carnival was revived with a vengeance by carnival chairman Louis W. Hill. Louis’ enthusiasm was everywhere and everyone was affected by it. He gave a rousing speech that brought the business community solidly behind him. “Men who cannot forget their business and get out and take part in the winter carnival are not the kind of men we want in St. Paul,” he declared. “Men who think something is wrong with the world need a change of thought. The world is all right. Believe in your country; believe in your business and your city. Throwing aside the cares of business occasionally to jump into a winter carnival is the greatest thing in the world.”
Jump into it they did. Perhaps as a response to the grim reports coming from Europe where the First World War was raging, St. Paul residents by the thousands joined together to produce a phenomenal winter festival. Seven toboggan slides, each with several lanes, quickly went up. Riders on the slide on Ramsey Hill reached speeds of 60 miles an hour. Citizens organized toboggan clubs, outfitted themselves with uniforms, and formed long lines at the slides. Ski jumps were erected on Harriet Island and in Phalen Park. Louis tried out all seven of the toboggan runs and personally dedicated the Palace Playground slide.
As usual, Louis gave his personal attention to every detail. On Oct. 14, 1916, he ordered 3,000 yards of 26-ounce, white “Yellowstone blanket material,” 60 inches wide, from the Pendleton Woolen Mills in Oregon along with hundreds of Hudson’s Bay Blankets — all to be used in the making of carnival costumes. Louis even specified the number of blankets that were to be dyed with red and yellow horizontal stripes, or blue and red stripes, or yellow and blue stripes, or a yellow background with black stripes. Louis’ own carnival outfit was made of the white blanket material with red horizontal stripes.
Marching Clubs were organized, many with hundreds of members. The club members wore distinctive uniforms, executed marching routines, composed and performed original songs. The Great Northern Railway band, the Glacier Park marching club, the three blanket-tossing squads and other participants associated with the railroad were decked out in the heavy white woolen suits with red, blue or yellow horizontal stripes. The sleeves sported badges of a mountain goat.
Louis chose the festival slogan “Make It a Hot One” and, defying the cold, helped organize 10 days of popular events that included nonstop parades, parties, formal balls, skating contests, tobogganing, skiing, sledding, hockey tournaments, races — even a dog show.
Louis was everywhere, planning and inspiring with an exuberance that was contagious. When King Boreas could not decide among the queen candidates he, with Louis’ approval, chose all 108 of them to be Winter Carnival queens.
The number of participants in the various marching clubs was astounding — in some cases so many appear in a photograph that it is difficult to accurately count them all. While the Dayton’s Bluff Marching Club had only 27 identically clad participants, the St. Paul Motor Boat Club had 39 nautically attired individuals, the O’Connell Shoe Company had 54, the Sisho and Beard Marching Club had over 60 while the G. Sommers & Company fielded around 175 identically clad and capped marchers. The De Luxe Souvenir View Book, published after the 1916 Winter Carnival, contains pictures of 79 costumed Marching Clubs, many with membership over 100. It took hours for all the marchers to pass in the parades while thousands of spectators lined the streets.
The ice palace of 1886 had been as large as a courthouse or railroad station, its sheer size making it impressive. The ice palace constructed in 1916, though lit by electric lights, was far smaller as Louis wanted the emphasis placed on the parades and sporting events. The climax of the Carnival was the coronation pageant staged in the St. Paul Auditorium before 15,000 enthusiastic spectators while, according to the souvenir book, another 30,000 were left outside unable to gain entrance. The whole affair ended with a banquet, honoring Louis for his leadership of the St. Paul Outdoor Sports Carnival.
A writer for the Duluth News Tribune wrote, “Within 48 hours after the ruction started the newsboys were calling him ‘Louie.’ There never was such another carnival and whatever else may be said, St. Paul arose to the occasion. They all climbed the Hill heights and had the best time of their lives. …They caught the Hill spirit of good fellowship and joyous sport and there was enough to go round. Best of all when it was all over … everybody wanted to do something for somebody and there is where Mr. Hill was caught in the maelstrom. He was the one. Everyone recognized that he was guilty. He was sentenced to be the most popular citizen of St. Paul. They wanted to make him president of the United States, but compromised by giving him a banquet with 1,800 carnival clad, yelling dervishes present to do him honor.”
Louis went on to chair the 1917 Winter Carnival in much the same fashion. The slogan for 1917 was ‘”Make It a Hotter One” and in some ways the event surpassed the celebration of the previous year.
There was a national ski tournament, world’s championship speed-skating races, a curling playoff. But the event that captured the attention of people throughout the nation was a dog-sled race from Winnipeg to St. Paul — a distance of over 500 miles. The route followed the old Pembina trail, familiar to James J. Hill, from Manitoba through North Dakota and Minnesota. It was the longest dog-team competition yet staged in the United States and the best publicized thanks to Louis.
The journey from Winnipeg to St. Paul turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. The temperature hovered far below zero much of the time. Snow drifts were 5 feet deep. One musher, Fred Hartman, lost his lead dog and with only four dogs remaining, none of whom could lead, he took on that role himself, breaking the trail through the snow and dragging his dogs behind him. Hartman quickly became the race favorite.
The race was to end at Como Park in St. Paul with Louis Hill Jr. on hand to present the winning card to the first team to cross the finish line. The temperature was 25 degrees below zero on Feb. 3 when the five remaining teams left Anoka on their run into St. Paul. A crowd conservatively estimated at 15,000 waited in the cold for their arrival.
At 12:45 p.m. Albert Campbell crossed the line as the winner with three other teams close behind. Only Hartman was missing. Despite the below-zero temperature, 5,000 spectators waited four more hours to cheer the arrival of Hartman, who, after crossing the line, collapsed into the arms of one of the judges.
Louis bundled the semi-conscious Hartman into his car and took him to his Summit Avenue home. Hartman described the experience.
“When I regained consciousness I was in a massive brass bed in the most sumptuously furnished bed chamber I had ever seen. I raised myself on the pillow rather weakly and rubbed my eyes, trying to get a clearer vision. It seemed like a dream. Louis W. Hill stood smiling at the bedside. I asked him where my dogs were and he said he had them in his stable and that they were well cared for.”
The Carnival was in full operation when Germany resumed submarine warfare on Feb. 1. The day before the dog-sled teams reached Como Park, the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. By April, the United States was involved in World War I and in 1918 Louis shipped boxcars full of the colorful striped Winter Carnival blanket suits to Finland for war relief.
Copyright 2011 Pioneer Press.
