The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-12
LEADVILLE'S ICE PALACE.
THE LARGEST AND MOST MAGNIF-
ICENT ICE PALACE EVER
CONSTRUCTED.

Fifteen Million Pounds of Ice-ThRt
and S25,OOO Were Required TO
Build It-EIectric Lights Refract-
ed in Rainbow Hues-FaeiIities for
Winter sports of Every Kind.
Copyright. 1896.
The loftiest mining city in the world.
Leadville, Colorado, comes before the
public this winter with the well-estab-
nshed claim of having the largest ice
palace ever built, The work of cOnstruc-
ton occupied the fun month OF December,
the laborers working in two shifts. night
and day Toward the completion OF the
building the force of men numbered over
two hundred. Leadville now offers to her
thousands of visitors. from all parts of
the United States. at once the greatest
ice palace and the grandest scenery in
the world. It is built on the summit of
the great continental divide, ten thOus-
and two hundred feet above the tide level.
and is reached by the Denver and Rio
Grande railway, which. at Tennessee
Pass, twenty-five miles further westward.
reaches the greatest altitude of any sim
liar railroad on the globe. Leadville
rests in the great basin of the Arkansas
river. which takes its rise within sight
of the city, at the summit of the magic
range of the rockies.
Nowhere in the world is there such a
background for an ice palace. The gilt
tering castle of the ice king sits on the
top of capitol hill, at the outskirts of the
city, commanding from this emienCe a
grand view of twenty-five miles of the
Arkansas valley. From this central point
of vantage the whole basin and the en-
tire city of Leadville is spread before the
/ beautifIH panorama
Leadvilfe's Ice Palace is nearly three
times as large as Montreais, larger than
st. PauPs, great than st. PeSersb--g's 5.
Covering nearly three acres of gruond, it
extends in its longest dimensions 450 feet,
and measures $50 feet across. Its walls of
solid ice blocks, each two feet thick, are
thirty-fve feet high, ornamented in front
by two lofty towers, forty feet through
and ninety feet high, with octagonal sides
three and one-half feet thick; and at other
angles in the walls are eight round tow
ers, two of them siXty-five feet in hight,
and four of them forty feet. A complete
wooden building stands inside the ice
walls, with lofty pillars and arched roof,
and is intended to remain permanently.
The pillars are all encased in solid walls
of transparent ice-so clear one can al
most read through them-and none of the
wood work is visible to the eye.
A grand staircase of ice leads from the
main entrancetto the skating rink which
occupies the main part of the interior.
This rink which is of solid ice has a
surface of 1900 square feet. The ceiling,
| thirty-five feet above it, is coated with
| frost, and long festoons of incandescent
| lights depend over the CLASSY surface.
One thousand of these lights and eighty
five arc lamps make an immense illumi-
nation, increased by the light refracted in
rainbow hueS from the ice on every side.
! Calcium and powerful search lights cross
their great shafts, and combine to make a
| scene of unequaled splendor.
A promenade encircles the rink and
| the west side of the building is occu-
! pied by a grand ballroom of fifty by
| eighty feet, with walls and ceiling dain-
| tily tinted. On the opposite side is an
auxiliary ballroom, a banquet hall. cloak
room and other apartments. The exhibits
of the exposition are found in the major
Outside the front entrance stands the
figure of "Leadville," a statue made OF
snow and ice, twenty feet high. She
wears crown of electric lights, and
donate Mining Camp on the farther side
of the city. A score of smaller ice stat
ues adorn the interior representing, the
mining prospector in different phases
of his work, and his ever-faithful and
indispensable companion, the burro-or
Rocky Mountain Canary as he is ia
cetiously dubbed on account of his me-
| lodious voice.
The palace is designed in the Old Nor
man style of architecture, castellated,
in contract to the cathedral-like building
at Montreal. 1t cost $50. 600 and required
in its construction fifteen millions pounds
of ice.
of March, and winter sports will be main
tanned in unbroken chain. There will
be brilliant gatherings, famous skaters,
hockey, lacrosse, curling and golf match
es ring tournaments, ice bicycles, Scot
fish turner's and other attractions in the
bathrooms and in the rink; while outside,
snowshoe clubs and sleighing and to-
boggan parties will make merry-the eli
max of the carnival being reached in the
storning of the castle with fireworks
The largest double toboggan slide ever
constructed reaches from the ice palace
to the main street of the city. 1t is one
thousand eight hundred feet in length
carrying visitors with lightning rapdity
to and fro. At each end of the toboggan
side are two-story frame buildings, equip
ped with comfortable waiting rooms; and
unlike the old-time style of coasting so
aptly described by the Chinaman-"zip-
Walkee mile"
The patrons of this exhilirating sport
will not have to walk a step. Indeed, in
the construction of the balloon with glass
fronts, so that the spectators may be
warm and comfortable, while watching
the sports on the rink, and in every de-
partment the comfort and convenience of
visitors has been studiously looked after
All Leadville is enthused over the car
nival, and there will be no lack of warmth
Of welcome or of open-handed hospital
ity, either on the part of Director Cen
eral Tingley s. Wood-one of the bonanza
kngs-or any of the inhabitants of the
Queen City of Cloudland."
Don Fernand.
MYSTERY OF MURDER.