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By Tim Ruzek

Ice skating near downtown Austin continued after the popular Furtney rink on the river closed after the 1908-09 winter.

But that wasn’t always on the river, where North Main Street used to end near today’s pool. Too much risk with river skating led to land-based rinks.

In December 1920, the Mower County News wrote, “Skating danger will be eliminated with new land rink.”

Lowering and raising of the Cedar River at Hormel’s mill at the downtown dam was causing cracks in the backwater’s ice.

Yet, a year later, the city reopened a rink on the Cedar near the new state park’s bathing beach (southwest Austin Mill Pond). It created a circular, electrically illuminated area 200 feet across. Fourteen poles were set in the ice to suspend a string of lights 20 feet above, with reflectors behind the lights.

That 1921–22 winter, the News wrote: “C’mon skating kids, the river is frozen over.”

Every day since the Cedar froze to a safe depth, kids gathered on the ice with every type of sled, skates and skis.

“It will not be long before the older generation will be ‘piking’ off with the kids to join them in their games of hockey. Last year saw as many grown-ups on the ice as youngsters.”

That January, the Herald described the area as a winter Coney Island, saying it was “impossible to judge how many were there with skates on.”

A recent blizzard covered the rink for two days but “kids couldn’t stand for that so immediately got busy and cleaned it off,” the Herald wrote.

Skating on the Cedar proved dangerous at times, particularly upstream from the rink.

On Nov. 19, 1900, the Herald proclaimed: “TREACHEROUS ICE — Small boys have narrow escapes from drowning” related to upriver skating. “The ice is very unsafe and parents should order their children to keep off until colder weather.”

In December 1906, a 13-year-old boy skating on the Cedar near downtown skated upstream with a few friends. They reached a bend — near today’s Bremer Bank — when the 13-year-old, leading the group, hit thin ice and went under.

Residents living nearby went out in boats for the boy, who was pulled out after efforts to drag the river found him in 15 feet of water. After two hours, he was declared dead.

The boy’s death made statewide news. He was the fourth to drown at nearly the same spot in 20 years.

As the 1910–11 season began, the Herald — which, at the time, was housed near the skating area at the head of Main Street — wrote about the “Dangers of Skating” after seeing kids skating there.

“‘It’s perfectly safe,’ we were told when we warned some of the youngsters of the danger,” the Herald wrote in November 1910. “The ice is not safe. While in places it may measure several inches in thickness, there are places where the river is not frozen over. Places that were covered with ice Friday are open water today. The Cedar River is not safe for skating until we have had weather considerably colder than we have had this fall.”

Later that month, the Herald warned people to “Keep off the ice,” saying “weather conditions make skating on the river a great danger,” adding that the Cedar “each year gets its toll of human life.”

“We met a bunch of happy, red-cheeked girls with skates over their shoulders on their way to the river to skate. They were going there with the consent of their mothers for it was certain that they never could have left home with their skates without being seen. Yet, these happy girls took great chances. We were glad when they left the ice.”

The Cedar is a “treacherous stream. Its waters fed by springs is considerably above the freezing point and only the surface is yet frozen,” the Herald wrote. “We have seen men crossing the river on the ice in the morning, and, before night, the river had melted it away.”

By the 1950s, Mill Pond started experiencing other ice challenges caused by the city storm sewer draining from the west and the Hormel plant’s water discharges from the east.

In 1954, the Herald reported good ice skating on New Year’s Eve at city rinks except Mill Pond, warning children to stay off the river. Soon after, its front page showed melted ice due to the storm sewer.

By December 1956, Hormel’s water emissions creating unsafe ice led to the skating area moving upstream of Mill Pond, with a new warming house, lights and supervision.

The Herald noted skating and hockey rinks were being opened by Parks & Recreation, including at Decker, Crane, Wildwood, Northeast, Galloway, Sterling, Athletic Field and Driesner— areas flooded and cleaned but not supervised. Supervised areas were on East Side Lake, Skinners Hill’s lagoon and Kaufman Park.

In 1973, Austin opened Riverside Arena to offer its first indoor hockey/skating rink.

Today, Austin has indoor ice at Riverside and Packer arenas. Outdoor hockey/skating is offered at Galloway, Sherman and Kaufman parks.