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Ice-out for 2016 was called on March 19 for the Chisago Chain of Lakes, tying the prior earliest record, March 19, 2012.  The Fredell Family. who’ve been the official recorders of ice out since 1916 also are marking a new record--the family’s 100th year as keepers of this magical date.  

Vernal equinox and the distance of the sun from the equator may be what phrenologists use for designating spring’s arrival date-- but around here spring arrives when you can see the lake again; complete with glistening ice shards melting on the shoreline and the almost sauna-like return of our old friend humidity.

Recording this year’s record-tying date was Dale L. Fredell, who officially accepted the ice out chart passed to him by his dad Dale O. Fredell in 1990.  

Dale O. took over from his father, John;  who made his first record of ice out the same year Dale O was born.
Ice out dates were originally written in the receipt book alongside sales of items from John’s jewelry store, in Center City.
When Dale number one took over he recalled in a newspaper account that he copied the first ice out dates out of the store salesbook. There’s a chart maintained now by the Fredells where you can easily reference the dates.

Ice out for 2016 is “early” considering how few ice outs have been proclaimed for any day in March (just 12 times of a total of 100 years.) If you are a betting person, go for a mid-April date.

Fredell, who now has a home on South Lindstrom Lake,  tells us the average ice out date of April 13, over the century,  is nearly a whole month later than what this year brought.

In 1969, 1970 and 1971 the ice out date was memorable because it was officially recorded the very same day, April 17.  

The latest we’ve had to wait to navigate the combined length of South Center and Chisago Lake was May 4, in 1950.  There’s an account in the Chisago County Press describing vehicles still being driven on  North Center Lake, that year on April 6.

Wind and rain impact ice out dates and there’s the water depth in the Chisago Chain, which fluctuates greatly from basin to basin.  

One such year is 1935, when the photo of John Fredell was taken of him standing in South Center Lake,  south of Hwy. 8. (See picture.)  The Chisago County Press reported in June 1934 there was corn being planted  in some parts of lakebed in the chain.

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