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Rockland Lake State Park: - 27 January, 2008
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Rockland Journal News
Kate Tucci • Special to The Journal News • January 27, 2008
People walk the 3-mile loop at Rockland Lake State Park year-round, but they seem more absorbed by the songs on their iPods than the history of the lake they passed.
That's something Timothy Englert, 46, of Valley Cottage wanted to change.
Englert, a developmental specialist with the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, started the Knickerbocker Ice Festival at Rockland Lake last year to do just that. It gets its name from the Knickerbocker Ice Co. of the 19th century. Ice from the lake was shipped around the world, with more than 80,000 tons of it harvested in 1866.
Yesterday, parkgoers were treated the second annual celebration. This year's ice sculpture is a 12-foot statue titled "The Lady of the Lake."
Its creator, Rob Patalano of the Rockland Lake Ice Co., said he was inspired when walking past the Knickerbocker firehouse, where he saw the Lady of the Lake on the front of a firetruck.
"I started thinking about what she might look like," he said. He began carving the 14-block sculpture at 8 a.m. yesterday, but has been preparing for weeks.
He started making the special, super-clear ice in early December, storing the 350-pound blocks until they were ready for the festival. He uses various grinders, Japanese chisels, an ice saw, 100-year-old tongs and other tools crucial for making his artworks.
"You can't cut it out with your hand. Without tools, you're not doing much," he said.
Another essential element for his sculpting is perfect weather. Patalano described the weather as "just what we ordered," noting that if it's too cold, sunny or rainy, it's difficult or impossible to carve the ice.
Last year, the sculpture lasted for five weeks, according to Englert, and they are all hoping for more of the same.
Patalano hopes to finish today, when the fire company will bring the old firetrucks to Rockland Lake and put them on display along with the ice sculpture, said John Burley, 50, of Milton, N.Y., a park manager at the Rockland Lake and Nyack Beach state parks.
Either way, local residents, such as Barbara Cohig, 43, of Nyack, were enjoying the process.
"It looks great," she said of the sculpture.
Englert said he hoped to renew interest in the history of Rockland Lake as a great contributor to the ice industry and help in the preservation of its historical aspects.
"I wanted to do something that evoked the spirit of a prior time," Englert said of the festival. "It gives people a reason to come to the park in the wintertime."
Last year, for the first festival, Patalano created an 18-foot replica of the Knickerbocker Ice House that had been located at Rockland Lake.
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