Brief by Allen Best
Colorado Lore – April 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The story appears to be all over except the shouting … or is it shivering? Fraser insists it won’t surrender the title of “Icebox of the Nation,” a nickname it began using in 1956. But International Falls, Minn., says it got the trademark for the name in 1986 and wants it back.
Fraser officials last year began checking the website for the U.S. Trademark Office, and discovered that International Falls had failed to reapply for the trademark 11 years ago.
After Fraser filed its new trademark application, International Falls professed indignation, and demanded that Fraser abandon its “pretended claim” for the title. The resolution adopted by town officials there called for the manner to deliver the request by snowball, if necessary.
For its part, reports the Winter Park Manifest, Fraser sent several Fraser “Icebox of the Nation” T-shirts and one plastic penguin.
This story about cold got predictably hot, inspiring coverage from everybody from National Public Radio to The Los Angeles Times to the Fox television network.
But it might be noted that Fraser is not always even the Icebox of Colorado. On many winter mornings, Gunnison or Alamosa will have the state’s lowest reading. And the state’s record cold temperature, -61°, was set on Feb. 1, 1985 at Maybell, a small town west of Craig in Moffat County. The previous record, -60°, was set in Taylor Park north of Gunnison.
