Lloyd Koesling’s creation on the corner of Highway 36 and Margaret Street in North St. Paul is dubbed the world’s largest stucco snowman. It’s become the defacto symbol of North St. Paul and an icon in the Twin Cities.

The snowman’s roots go back to the early 1950s when North St. Paul hosted an annual “Snow Frolic” event. The festivities mascot was a giant snowman, created each year by volunteers from real snow. But after a visit to Disneyland Koesling realized a stucco snowman would avoid the expense and effort of creating a new snowman each year. In 1971 he began construction on the snowman at the corner of Margaret and 7th Streets in downtown North St. Paul. In 1974 the 20-ton, 44-foot snowman was completed.

In 1990 the snowman was moved to Highway 36 and Margaret Street.

In 2006 the snowman was decked out in the colors and number of Bret Hedican, a hockey player who grew up in North St. Paul and won the Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Learn more about the snowman from the McKnight Foundation’s You Are Here (PDF).