Minnesota Ice sets Guinness World Record

Effort led by West St. Paul native

By Tim Spitzack | Editor | February 2025

One of the state’s newest winter festivals recently gained international notoriety by setting a Guinness World Record for the largest-ever ice maze. St. Paul-based Minnesota Ice captured the honors on Jan. 10 for its near 19,000-square-foot maze at the Minnesota Ice Festival, which continues through Feb. 16 at TCO Stadium at Viking Lakes in Eagan. It smashed the previous record of nearly 12,900 square feet set 15 years ago in Buffalo, N.Y.

The feat was the ambitious goal of West St. Paul native Robbie Harrell, owner of Minnesota Ice, and its success reveals his entrepreneurial spirit, ability to overcome obstacles and desire for creating an opportunity for people to enjoy wintertime in Minnesota.

The inaugural Minnesota Ice Festival was held in 2022 at Viking Lakes in Eagan and attracted nearly 60,000 people to the ice maze, ice sculptures and other winter-related festivities. Buoyed by its success, Harrell and his team worked to expand the event for the winter of 2023 by adding more entertainment, a scavenger hunt and free giveaways. But Mother Nature did not cooperate. With temps topping 50 degrees in late December that year, he was forced to pull the plug on the ticketed event.

“We didn’t want to put on a bad experience,” said Harrell. “We canceled, issued full refunds and lost a boatload of money.” He was also stuck with at least three semi-trailer loads of supplies. Fortunately, he was able to use them for this year’s festival.

Harrell’s willingness to tackle the event this year stems from the optimism he’s learned by overcoming other challenges with Minnesota Ice, which creates custom-made ice displays, ice bars, specialty cocktail ice, and packaged ice for retail stores.

The 2009 Two Rivers High School graduate fell into the business by happenstance. After graduating high school, he initially attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout to study supply chain management but transferred to the University of St. Thomas to pursue entrepreneurial studies. The entrepreneurial bug bit him hard and he dropped out of St. Thomas to start his own company – just four credits shy of earning his bachelor’s degree. He was introduced to the niche ice market after meeting professional ice carver Trevor Pearson and helping him deliver his creations to customers.

Harrell founded Minnesota Ice in 2013 in the garage of his St. Paul home and later rented space in Shakopee and Minneapolis before moving to the company’s 20,000-square-foot headquarters at 755 Prior Ave. N., St. Paul. Today, Minnesota Ice employs nearly 70 and serves clients across the nation. Pearson is the lead ice sculptor.

The company’s big break came in 2018 when it landed numerous accounts for ice displays for companies hosting events for Super Bowl LII, held at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The next year it won a contract with Holiday Station Stores to provide packaged ice, and then discovered the market for specialty cocktail ice: ice crafted into different shapes and sizes and featuring logos or artwork.

The company was on an upward trajectory until the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 forced the closure of restaurants, bars and many events – all primary clients for Minnesota Ice. With the help of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, Harrell looked for anything possible to keep his then-20 employees busy. They developed an online store to sell their own ice products and cocktail kits that included all ingredients but alcohol. They also partnered with restaurants to sell meal packages. When he learned from a friend that the University of Minnesota was looking for one-time-use facemasks, he purchased a machine in Chicago and began manufacturing them at his St. Paul facility.

That December, Harrell received a most unexpected call from the Zephyr Theatre in Stillwater, saying they wanted 3,000 blocks of ice.

“Nobody buys three thousand ice blocks,” said Harrell. “We’re the largest manufacturer of sculpture grade ice and we produce 450 blocks a week. I said, ‘What do you guys want to do?’ They said, ‘We want to build an ice maze.’”

Minnesota Ice gladly took the order and supplied the ice. The event was a great success and attracted about 30,000 people, said Harrell, but was canceled the following year due to financial difficulties with the theater. The silver lining in losing that large account was that Harrell was introduced to the world of ice mazes, which brings us full circle to the founding of the Minnesota Ice festival.

“We learned a lot of good lessons in the first year of what to do and how to make it better,” said Harrell.

In addition to the massive ice maze at this year’s event, the festival features a 44-by-80-foot skating rink, multi-lane ice slide, ice bar, food trucks, outdoor firepits and 50-by-100-foot warming tent.

It also features the Carver Cup ice sculpting competition Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Ice sculpting teams from across the country will create spectacular works of art and compete for a cash prize and the Carver Cup trophy.

Festival hours are 4-10 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $24.99 for ages 15 and older and $12.99 for ages 5-14. For more information, visit minnesotaicefestival.com.

Minnesota Ice also hosts the Minnesota Ice Bar series, which features ice bars around the Twin Cities. Nine restaurants are participating this year. A map of their locations is available at minnesota-ice.com.

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