Northern Maine group will make 1st ever international ice carousel

2 weeks ago

VAN BUREN, Maine — The Northern Maine Ice Busters, a St. John Valley group that holds the current world record for building the largest ice carousel, is setting its sights on two new records. 

At an event in March, it hopes to create the first ice carousel with an international boundary running directly through the middle, and the largest one on a river.

An ice carousel is a piece of ice cut into a perfect circle over a body of water and designed to spin in a circle. In order for a carousel to qualify for world record status, it needs to spin one entire revolution, according to the World Ice Carousel Association

The Northern Maine Ice Busters set the current world record for the largest carousel in 2023, after carving through 29 inches of Long Lake and making one that measured 1,776 feet in diameter.

Laura Pelletier, chairperson of the upcoming international ice carousel event, noted there are often creative reasons for the dimensions they choose. Their third carousel was 1,234 feet because those are sequential numbers. And they chose 1,776 feet for their record-breaker to correspond with the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.

“This year’s will be 207 feet,” she said, “because of our area code.”

They opted for that one instead of New Brunswick’s 506 area code because the latter would be too large for the St. John River.

While the Northern Maine Ice Busters has a core group of about 14 people who regularly plan projects, that number can double or even triple at the time of the event, according to Pelletier.

Roger Morneault of St. Agatha poses in 2021 with one of two machines he designed to carve ice for ice carousels. (Courtesy of Roger Morneault)

Roger Morneault, a founding member, said the carousel will be located precisely between the U.S. and Canada, with a national surveyor from Edmundston coming down to mark out the international boundary. Once established, they will mark the boundary and begin making the carousel.

“That line is going to be exactly down the middle of that carousel,” he said. 

Making a carousel involves creating the outline of a perfect circle, Morneault said. This can be done with rope for smaller carousels.

“After you’ve marked out your circle, you use a chainsaw,” he said. “You’ve got to cut twice, about ten inches wide, and you’ll cut about five feet, break that block off and push it under the lake ice, but not under the carousel. You don’t want it under the rotating part.”

This process repeats along the outline until a full circle is cut. Motors are then added so the circle can rotate.

“We make a wooden box — picture a square of two by sixes — and we auger a hole in the ice and drop the motor in there and just fasten it right to those two by sixes so it’s hanging about the hole,” he said. “And then put a gas tank on it and fire it up.”

Morneault said the ice busters were formed almost ten years ago in 2016, when he and some of his friends made a small carousel on Long Lake.

“We were bored one April, and I decided to go cut a modest-sized carousel down at the sporting club, so I called a few friends up, told them I had a thirty pack of beer and we’re going on the ice to use some chainsaws,” he said. 

From there, the group formed, began breaking world records and grew considerably.

“Needless to say, making world records is no longer an individual achievement anymore,” Morneault said. “It takes a very large and disciplined group of people to make it happen.”

Morneault said that group member Mike Cyr came up with the name “Northern Maine Ice Busters,” to set itself apart when competing with groups across the country and globe.

Its competitors are based in Minnesota, Quebec and Finland. Morneault once flew out to Finland to help a team beat Minnesota’s record.

And the Northern Maine Ice Busters beat Finland’s record just a couple months later.

All the names of previous record holders are carved on a trophy.