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“Dress warm for the parade’ is the usual advice given when delivering the official red and faux ermine-trimmed cape to the Taylors Falls Royal Lady of the Village. But in the case of this year’s honored citizen, Amy Frischmon, those wise words weren’t necessary. Frischmon already spends a good portion of her life outdoors in the wintertime and actually looks forward to freezing temps.

Frischmon owns and runs Wild Mountain, with her brother Dan Raedeke. For this one Lighting Festival parade, however, she won’t be juggling last minute adjustments to Wild Mountain’s float while hustling from one event to another... she gets to kick-back and bask in the royal lady treatment. The Royal Lady rides in the parade and reigns as ex officio queen of all the festivities.

Along with being selected Royal Lady, Frischmon and her family have another connection to this year’s T.F. Lighting Festival. Her family’s paddleboat cruise business is the main design element of the 2006 official ornament. The riverboat is etched on a large glass disc, and comes inside a glittery handmade bag.

Taylors Falls Scenic Boat Cruises commemorates 100 years of operation this year, all under one family’s guidance. The beveled glass ornaments are part of the limited edition offering sponsored by the festival committee every year as a fundraiser and a collectible.

Frischmon was all of 3-years-old in 1972 when her parents Dennis and Cam Raedeke got Wild Mountain up and running.

She grew up doing everything that needs doing at the skiing, snowtube and snowboarding complex. There were, however, a few years of independence. She remembers, “My parents had a rule, we had to get a degree and we had to work for somebody else” before taking on management of Wild Mountain.

“We had to have somebody else for a boss before we could be the bosses,” she said of her brother and herself.

Frischmon earned an international business degree and travelled. She spent time in Paris and lived for three years on the island of Guam, before settling back here fulltime in 1995.

She has three children, ages 5,8 and 9 and lives in Center City. Home base is located sort of midway between Taylors Falls and the Centennial School District, south on I-35, where her husband is a teacher.

Since she has been co-running Wild Mountain with her brother there have been numerous upgrades and changes. Of working alongside her brother Frischmon, “We complement each other, his strengths are in doing things I am not very strong at, and it has worked out that I do much of the inside operations and he takes care of the outside things.”

Wild Mountain regularly expands its ski and snowboard amenities and the water park warm weather half of business is growing.

For this winter Frischmon says the sno-tubing building is doubled in size from last year, with parking lot and interior improvements.

One of the main things Frischmon said she truly enjoys about being involved in the Taylors Falls Lighting Festival is it spotlights such a beautiful area and brings together a variety of local talent to share their gifts.

The St. Croix Valley is at the top of her list of favorite locations, and she feels lucky to live and work where she has both deep roots and unlimited growing potential.

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