Are you craving a one-of-a-kind winter amusement that isn't just your traditional ol' holiday party or visit to Santa? Well, this Indiana family has created a tradition that's entirely their own, and you're invited to check it out!
Since 1961, the Veal family has been creating a unique monolith in honor of...well, fun.
Legend has it that back in '61, an Indy couple by the names of Mabel and Vierl Veal came up with a strange idea: what if they created an ice sculpture on their property that they kept adding to all winter?
The pair had noticed the beautiful appearance of ice on bushes around their property and decided to recreate the look.
The result was pure magic. Using water from their nearby pond, they began spraying piles of sticks and brush and allowing it to freeze.
Even from the beginning, there was no literal tree involved- no living trees have ever been harmed in the making of the Ice Tree!
Over the years, word spread about the Veal family's odd little project. People began showing up to the homestead, curious about what it looked like.
Although Mr. Veal passed away in the 1970s, his family carried the tradition on, and to this day, the Veal Ice Tree goes up every year (well, almost every year) once there have been five consecutive days of below-freezing temperatures.
Though uncommon, some years have just been too warm for the sculpture to go up. Janet Veal-Drummond, Mr. and Mrs. Veal's daughter, estimates that there have been seven or eight winters that were just not quite cold enough to sustain the tree.
But in the years when it's just cold enough, magic happens.
The Veal family Ice Tree attracts folks not just from nearby Indianapolis but from all over the state to check out the unusual work of art. The family will sometimes enlist the help of lucky visitors to add to the monolith, be it with more water or colorful dyes to create a truly whimsical piece of work.
There's no charge to go look at the tree, and it's become a tradition for local families to view it every year.
It varies in height year by year, but the Veal family estimates the tallest tree they had was around 80 feet tall in the winter of 2013/2014.
The family keeps the tradition alive both to honor their grandfather and because, well, it's pretty awesome.
If you'd like to take a gander at the Veal family's Ice Tree homepage, you can find it here. They also have a Facebook page!
Have you ever seen Veal's Ice Tree? Is it as awesome as it looks? Tell us all about it in the comments below.
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