“Snow Queen: A New Horizon”
(This exhibit displayed from December 1, 2004 to January 30, 2005)

The Dacotah Prairie Museum was  proud to once again sponsor an exhibition dedicated to the South Dakota Snow Queen Festival. The theme for the Snow Queen Festival, 2005, will be “A New Horizon.”

The Snow Queen Festival began when the St. Paul Winter Carnival invited South Dakota to provide a local Snow Queen to visit the Carnival in Minnesota. Now, every year South Dakota holds the contest to see which lucky young lady from 50 plus local communities will become the state’s Snow Queen.

The Aberdeen Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) has hosted this South Dakota tradition every year since its beginning in 1946 until recently. The creation of a “Snow Queen Committee” to oversee and organize the contest has been a Jaycee outgrowth, allowing the Queen contestants, Frosty the “Mystery Snowman”, and the Snow Guards to promote South Dakota in a positive way.

The exhibit highlights the fist Snow Queen cape of white satin from the 1946 pageant, photos of the Junior Snow Queens, a list of all the Frosty the Snowman enactors, scrapbooks, crowns, coins, mugs and buttons of Snow Queen contests. A special tribute is paid this year as GASM, Frosty and the Snow Guards, celebrate their 50 year anniversary. A Snow Guard in full costume is included in the exhibit.

In January, the Museum hosted  a luncheon for Dignitaries involved with the contest.   Be a part of a South Dakota winter tradition and join the Dacotah Prairie in congratulating this year’s contestants on their “New Horizon”.

To view other past exhibits, please click here.