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Area residents bet on start to spring, when a structure falls through ice

In Negaunee, there’s a 10-year tradition of betting when this structure will fall through the ice. (Photo courtesy of Neil J. Lynch)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Visit the newsroom online: bridgemi.com.

NEGAUNEE — In (the city of Negaunee) the first sign of spring is not necessarily a robin’s call or a budding flower, it’s when a mock mining structure breaks through the ice on Teal Lake.

As part of a 10-year tradition, people purchase tickets to guess when the metal structure will go down. The person with the closest guess wins roughly half the pot, usually thousands of dollars. After covering the costs of the contest, the rest goes to charity.

In past years, the structure has broken through as early as March 16 and as late as May 3. 

This is the Teal Lake Melt-Down, a fundraiser started by the Lions Club in Negaunee. A ticket to guess costs $5 and can be bought in person from a Negaunee Lions Club member or online before 11:45 p.m. April 1. The winning ticket must be purchased 48 hours before the structure breaks through the ice. 

The Teal Lake Melt-Down “is an authentic celebration of winter’s unofficial end,” Susan Estler, CEO of Travel Marquette, the county’s visitors and convention bureau, said in an email to Bridge.

Some residents do see the break-through as marking the transition to spring.

“The days get longer and the temperatures get higher and the ice gets thinner and there is some anticipation and definitely some, I guess you could say, relief when the structure does finally break though,” said Negaunee Lions Club member Neil Lynch, the chair for the Teal Lake Melt-Down.

At a brainstorming session more than 10 years ago, Negaunee Lions Club members came up with the idea of having people submit entries for when an object would fall through the ice. The Iron Mountain-Kingsford Rotary Club had been running a similar competition, except they used an old car.

The Negaunee Lions Club decided to put atop Teal Lake a replica of three mine shaft headframes, towers used to raise and lower miners, supplies and materials. The structure was designed and assembled for free by UP Fabricating Co., a company owned by Negaunee Lions Club member Rick Kauppila.

“Mining is such a big part of our history and culture here in Marquette County,” Lynch said. 

The club will know exactly when the structure breaks through because Range Telecommunications, one of the contest’s sponsors, has a camera set up on a City of Negaunee building that monitors the lake.

“More often than not, it’s pretty, I’ll just use the word ‘violent,'” said Lynch. “When it goes, it goes.”

Except for the time when they had accidentally put the structure on a shallow part of the lake where the structure was taller than the depth below. After that incident, the club made sure to say people are betting on when it “breaks through,” not when it “sinks.”

When the structure does go down, it’s recovered for free by the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office, which uses pulling it out of the lake as a training exercise.

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“It’s a great opportunity for us because if we have cars going through the water, or other vehicles or anything that’s larger, it’s a great way for the Sheriff’s Office to have some real-world experience,” said Marquette County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Alex Gill.

They have divers locate the structure and then they use special deflated air bags, called lift bags, that are secured to the structure and then pumped with air through a hose.

“It essentially turns it into almost like a life jacket for the structure,” Gill said.

As of March 9, more than 1,400 tickets had already been purchased.

Negaunee resident Mike Guenette thinks he’s bought tickets every year since the contest began in 2016.

“I kind of pick the same way every year,” Guenette said. “I pick a week that I think will be the week and then I usually pick 1:01 p.m., 2:02 p.m., 3:03 p.m., 4:04 p.m. and 5:05 p.m.”

He picks five days in a row.

“I figure it’s always going to go in the afternoon, when the sun is high and melting things,” he said.

The strategy paid off in 2021 when the metal structure broke through on April 5 at 3:01 p.m. and Guenette had the closest guess. He got $2,188, which he thinks he mostly spent on sports-related costs for his five kids. He also recalls donating a portion back to the Lions Club.

Lynch, the Melt-Down chair, said “there’s really no end to the needs” in Negaunee, a small town of around 5,000 people. The Lions Club supports youth sports, provides eyesight screenings and gives out cash prizes at a bingo night it runs at a local nursing home.

Past winner Guenette recommends ticket buyers “not really think of it like you’re potentially going to win, and more of a donation to a really great organization that puts a lot of that money — if not all of it — right back into our community.”

Starting at $3.23/week.

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