Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By CHARITY SMITH
Marenisco — A Marenisco couple has created an ice skating rink on Lake Gogebic just off their shoreline property. According to Kristie Peterson, her husband, Steve, made the rink as a way to have fun this holiday season with family and friends while maintaining social distancing.
“It was fun. We had some teenagers over that were home for the holidays. It was just something to do that was awesome,” Peterson said.
She said they waited to make the rink until the ice on the lake was at least 5 inches thick. It took her husband about a week from start to finish to make the ice skating rink and it was finished just before Christmas. The center of the rink is marked with an American flag spray painted onto the ice. The flag, she says, is a reflection for his love of this country and his service in the U.S. Army. They also have an old ice shack just on shore that functions as a warming shack.
According to Peterson the skating rink, which is located on the south end of the west shore of the lake, measures 30 feet wide and is 40 feet long. The flag is approximately 6 feet by 4 feet.
The Petersons use shovels and a snowblower to clear and maintain the rink. Maintenance also includes pumping water from the lake to flood the ice.
Kristie Peterson said her husband made “a smoothing device — he calls it a Zamboni — out of PVC pipe. ... It has this rake and this blanket/towel and he smooths it out every other day.”
She said they plan to keep the rink open all winter, but it depends on the weather.
“The biggest challenge will be slush if we get some sunny days,” she said. “Not so much snow, but slush.”
She said they have a number of requests from neighbors to use the rink and they are happy to oblige.
“I thought it was just something so minute, but it is just fun; and with the year everyone has had it’s just nice to see fun, just normal things,” she said.