In 2019, former Park Record editor Teri Orr wrote a column reminiscing about her arrival in Park City, two children in tow, 40 years earlier.
“We moved to town in March [1979] and on the Park City Golf Course that very first weekend was a snow-sculpture contest with the most incredible vignettes – made in one day and completely out of nothing but snow,” Teri wrote. “There were Viking ships and fairytale scenes and dragons and sea-creatures and gingerbread-looking houses and charging wild horses in a pack and a giant rabbit with a giant carrot. The contest, I learned, had been going on for a few years. … My kids – who were understandably sad at leaving behind … their school and friends – were suddenly smitten by the coolest place we had moved to.”
They had stumbled into what was then one of Park City’s most popular rites of spring.
The first mention of a snow-sculpture contest in the pages of The Park Record appeared in December 1966 when the Park City Chamber of Commerce announced plans for a three-day winter carnival to be called – you can’t make this up – “Snow-a-go-go.” The Chamber’s ambitious agenda also called for about 15 other activities including a skijoring exhibition, a garter-making contest, and even a stretch-pants competition. By 1971 the sculpture contest had become an annual event.
Held in late February or early March, when winter’s accumulated snow had started to soften, the event soon exploded in popularity. In 1980 it attracted 120 entries and an estimated 10,000 spectators, who wandered the golf course, watching sculptors create magical figures using piles of the white stuff and their fertile imaginations.
Entries were judged on creativity, difficulty, originality, and quality. A little whimsy didn’t hurt. In 1976 Bill Allen won first prize for a bar scene showing a man with a voluptuous woman perched on each knee while a forlorn male companion looked on, alone. A sculpture in 1981 showed a haggard man dragging a sled loaded with several grinning canines. In 1982 a man in a rowboat delivering an enormous light bulb to a lighthouse won second prize. Another entry that year paid tribute to the iconic Silver King Coalition Building that had burned the previous July. Comic-strip favorite Garfield the Cat made more than one appearance over the years.
The contest was open to individuals and groups. For some Utah families, entering the contest became an annual affair. Most contestants came from out of town. However, Park City artist John Helton’s bison sculpture was a popular favorite in 1989.
The contest would begin about 8:30 a.m. and end about 3 p.m. Sculptors used implements typically found in garden sheds and kitchen cabinets. Coca-Cola, the lead sponsor, provided the prize money.
Credit: Photo courtesy of David Hampshire.
So what happened to the snow-sculpture contest?
Snow conditions could be an issue, forcing cancellation of the event three times – in 1986, 1988 and 1995. And even on the best of days the sculptures were ephemeral, soon dripping and drooping in the rays of the afternoon sun.
By the mid-1990s the number of entries had dwindled to as few as 16. Over the years the contest moved from the golf course to the high school baseball field and finally to City Park. Coverage in The Park Record retreated to the back pages. The last contest was held in 1998.
In a nostalgic editorial in January 2009, Park Record editor Nan Noaker recalled the “good old days” when the town would look for almost any excuse to throw a party.
“After the [Olympic] Games, though, it seems that Parkites were too busy trying to keep up with their newfound popularity, especially during the hectic ski season, to let their hair down. Winter carnivals, snow-sculpture contests, and other lighthearted events fell by the wayside,” Nan wrote.
“In the meantime, while Park City may have seemed like a vacation paradise to visitors, locals for the most part kept their shoulders to the grindstone, like a hostess too busy to enjoy her own party.”
Then Park City Museum is hosting a lecture titled “The Oregon Trail,” given by Dorian DeMaio on Wednesday, March 12 from 5-6 p.m. at their Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive.