Earlier this month, dozens of Mainers in the far northern reaches of the state created what they say is the largest ice carousel ever made.

The feat—organized by Snowmobile Northern Maine as a fundraiser for the Aroostook County Meals on Wheels program—cut a circle 427 feet wide out of the ice of Long Lake, near the village of Sinclair, and got it spinning on Saturday, April 7, like a giant merry-go-round powered by a number of outboard motors.

They’d been foiled some weeks earlier, in mid-March, when they’d first begun the project. More than 100 volunteers used augers, chainsaws and even shovels to cut the giant circle out of the 2.5-foot-thick lake ice. But they could only get it to turn a few inches. The ice was so thick, organizers said, that they couldn’t get their outboard motors deep enough into the water below.

But they were able to finally get it spinning as the weather warmed a bit in early April.


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Paul Cyr's photo (above and at top) of giant ice carousel cut in Long Lake, near the village of Sinclair, Maine, April 2018.
Paul Cyr’s photo (above and at top) of giant ice carousel cut in Long Lake, near the village of Sinclair, Maine, April 2018.