Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019-2021
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and December 31, 2021. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.
If there's something Canadians know about other than beer, it's ice sports. Hockey, curling, speed skating, figure skating, broom ball, doing donuts on the frozen lake in you car - you get the picture! There's nothing like a perfect sheet of ice. You might think that Canadians would have developed the perfect way to resurface that ice, but if you did, you'd be wrong.
When I moved to the Los Angeles area over 20 years ago, I discoved a little secret about the most iconic ice resurfacing machine in the world. Hopefully discovering this gem will give you the same joy.
Just as Xerox and Kleenex have become household names when one refers to photocopiers and facial tissue, when it comes to ice resurfacers there is only one name that needs mentioning and that is thanks to Paramount's own Frank Zamboni! That's right - if you have made your way to the posted coordinates of this virtual cache, you are less than one city block away from the where the original Zamboni Model "A" ice resurfacer helped Frank and his brother Lawrence open and successfully operate one of Southern California's first ice rinks and all of the the rest of the world's rinks have benefited ever since.
After moving to Southern California in 1920, Frank and Lawrence opened an electrical service business catering to the local dairy industry. The brothers installed refrigerator units that dairies used to keep their milk cool. When the demand for cooling expanded into the produce industry, the brothers built a plant that made the block ice that wholesalers then used to pack their product for transport by rail across the country. As refrigeration technology improved, the demand for block ice began to shrink and Frank and Lawrence started looking for other ways to capitalize on their expertise with making ice. That opportunity came in the sport of ice skating. Popularity of the sport was growing, so in 1939 Frank, Lawrence, and a cousin built the Iceland Skating Rink - an outdoor, 20.000 square foot sheet of ice that could hold up to 800 skaters. Yup - the original rink was actually an open-air facility, but the brothers soon learned that with the intense Southern California sun and dry desert winds, the quality of their ice sheet was less than adequate and they opted to cover it with a domed roof. The challenge now was to maintain this much-improved indoor surface.
At the time, resurfacing ice meant pulling a scraper behind a tractor. Three or four workers would scoop away the shavings, spray the surface with water and squeegee the dirty water away. This was followed by applying more water that would be allowed to freeze. Unfortunately, this whole process took over an hour. It wasn’t long before Frank attempted to develop a machine that would make the task of ice-resurfacing fast and efficient and the concept of the Zamboni ice resurfacer was born…
In March of 1942 Frank bought a tractor and started experimenting and by 1947 he had developed a machine that would shave the ice, remove the shavings, wash and squeegee the ice, and hold snow in an elevated tank large enough to last for an entire resurfacing job. To overcome some of the remaining inadequacies he encountered with this design, he purchased another surplus front steering truck axle so he would have both four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering and designed an adjustable blade that could be held firmly in place by the operator, thus keeping it from chattering or digging into the ice. By the summer of 1949 he was able to get a good sheet of ice consistently, and the “Model A Zamboni Ice Resurfacer” became a working reality. Frank applied for a patent and in 1953, Patent Application No. 93,478 was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The rest, as they say, is history!
Paramount Iceland (now called LA Kings Iceland in Paramount) still operates today and is still just blocks from the Paramount Zamboni factory. In fact, it’s not unusual to see Zamboni ice resurfacers driving down the neighborhood streets on their way to be tested at Iceland before they are shipped to destinations around the world!
When I was first granted this virtual cache, I was very excited to bring the caching community to Paramount Iceland to see the orginal restored Zamboni Model "A" that is on display inside, but the viral times made that rather difficult. The good news is that things are now fully open to the public and the orginal Zamboni Model "A" is proudly displayed up front instead of at the back of the rink where it used to be hidden.
To log a find for this cache, go inside Paramount Iceland. and head to additional waypoint one. Once there you will see the fully restored Zamboni Model "A". Send me a message with the following:
1) The name and GC number of this virtual cache.
2) Tell me who drove the Model A during the "Old-Timer's" game at the NHL All Star Week in Vancouver, BC in 1998 and who was driving the Model A in the photo from 1949? Both answers are on the same informational kiosk that highlights the Model A.
OPTIONAL - post a photo of you with the restored Model A Zamboni
When I first published this cache, access to Paramount Iceland was hit and miss, so I created a second option that visitors could attempt to be able to log this Virtual as found. I was going to delete this option now that the facility is open to the public, but for those night owls out there I will leave it as an additional option for qualification. It is nowhere near as cool (no pun intended), but it is still a neat place to check out. If you would rather not go inside Paramount Iceland, find the minature Zamboni in the Ice Sports Park to the west by going to additional waypoint two and send me a message with the following:
1) The name and GC number of this virtual cache.
2) The number of silver maple leafs that can be found along the concrete border of the section of the "rink" that surrounds the Zamboni.
3) The number of wooden slats that make up the base of the bridge at the west end of this section of the "rink" (feel free to count the thinner piece on the north end of the bridge as only a 1/2 slat and only count the larger slats of equal width).
4) Skate yourself over to the adjacent "rink" on the west side of the bridge next to the minature Zamboni and find the bronze sculpture of the young boy that is playing hockey and tell me which way he shoots. For those of you that watch second tier sports like basketball (an actual Canadian invention - go figure), here's a tip. Stand behind the boy and look down at the curved blade of his stick. From this vantage point bend the fingers of your hands inward. The hand that represents the curve of his stick is the "way that he shoots".
5) Find the tiled mural on the wall of the building at the far northwestern end of the park that shows five historic photos. In the photo with the caption "Iceland Opens Jan 3,1940", what does the sign with the large lettering say (two words).
I hope you enjoy your visit. If nothing else, you will have a fun story to tell the next time you are at a Kings game. If it's Ducks game you go to instead and you are not cheering for the visiting team, I'm afraid you are dead to me!:)