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'Nation's icebox' claim makes for chilly relations

Fraser, Minnesota town want trademark

Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 26, 2007 at midnight

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The brouhaha over the title "Icebox of the Nation" has heated up again.

The Grand County town of Fraser has applied to trademark the nickname, contending that International Falls, Minn., let the trademark lapse.

The two small towns have had frosty relations for at least 20 years over bragging rights that come with the slogan.

Last week, the Minnesotans asked the Coloradans to withdraw their trademark application.

"They respectfully and politely declined our request," said Rod Otterness, city administrator for International Falls, which lies on the Canadian border about 300 miles north of the Twin Cities.

"That's absolutely correct," said Fran Cook, mayor of Fraser, five miles north of Winter Park. "If they don't want the slogan, we do."

International Falls City Attorney Joe Boyle said the town has filed regularly with state authorities to protect the slogan, which it has used for more than 50 years.

"We are entitled to the trademark 'Icebox of the Nation' because we have the earliest use and continued use," Boyle said.

International Falls contends the title is worth at least $700,000 annually to the town, the site of frigid-weather testing for vehicles and aircraft.

Cook, however, said the Minnesotans abandoned the trademark in 1995 by failing to protect it with federal authorities, although Fraser became aware just last year that the slogan was available. She said the town has exclusive use of the slogan in Colorado.

"Fraser's major interest is historic and cultural," Cook said, because the town has painted the slogan on welcome signs for decades. Fraser, she said, "definitely" will pursue the trademark.

Each town's claim to be the nation's icebox actually is hot air.

A minus 79.8-degree reading on Jan. 23, 1971, at Prospect Creek Camp along the Alaska pipeline is the nation's lowest, according to the National Weather Service.

The agency also lists Maybell as the site of Colorado's record low, minus 61 on Feb. 1, 1985.

Minnesota's record low was minus 60 on Feb. 2, 1996, in Tower, according to the Weather Service.

Frigid facts about Fraser and International Falls

Fraser

Elevation - 8,550 feet

Population - 910 in 2000 census; located in Grand County, 13,211 population estimated in 2005, with a 6.2 percent growth rate in 2000-05

Births and deaths-Grand County - 152 births and 55 deaths in 2003

Temperatures* - Average low in January 2006, minus 2.7; average high in January 2006, 30.5; average low in January 2005, 4.9; average high 35.7, according to the National Climatological Data Center

Businesses with "Icebox" in the name - None, according to the visitors center Web site

International Falls

Elevation - 1,185 feet

Population - 6,703 in 2000 census; located in Koochiching County, 13,901 population estimated in 2005, with a 3.1 percent decline in population in 2000-05

Births and deaths -Koochiching County - 126 births and 149 deaths in 2003

Temperatures* - Average low in January, the coldest month, minus 8.4 degrees; average high in January, 13.8 degrees; average year-round low, 26 degrees; average year-round high, 48.8 degrees

Businesses with "Icebox" in the name - Icebox Antiques

*The National Weather Service at Denver International Airport doesn't maintain the same types of weather records for Fraser as does the Duluth Airport in Minnesota for International Falls.

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