Making an Ice Carousel? Don’t Do What This Michigander Did

Popular in places where it gets frigidly cold, ice carousels have been around for a few years. At least, on social media.

If you're unfamiliar, an ice carousel, or ice merry-go-round, is a circular piece of ice that is created by using a chainsaw (usually). They're spun manually using shovels or even small boat motors at times. Check out this 'how-to' video out of Minnesota from 2020:

They seem to be a growing trend on sites like Tiktok, too. Here you see a guy on a very small ice carousel using a small boat motor to make it spin :

This one out of New Hampshire is much larger:

Some are decorated with couches, Christmas trees, even temporary fire pits like this one:

However, there are several things to look out for if you're planning on creating your own ice carousel:

• make sure the ice is thick enough
• make sure you have help (you COULD do it on your own...but that's a lot of work)
• and, whatever you do, DON'T drive onto the ice circle with a full-sized car

You might be reading that last tip and thinking, "Well, duh. Who would drive a car onto that?"

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Unfortunately, as it was demonstrated on Wiggins Lake in Gladwin, Michigan, driving your vehicle onto an ice carousel has disastrous consequences.

Wait until the end...

Yup. That's a full-size mini-van now submerged in Wiggins Lake. The Tiktok user @rebeccabrown145 took to the comment section on her video, which has over 40k views, to explain what happened. She said,

Everyone is ok. The driver was warned not to do this, and did it anyways.

Unfortunately, a grill and several chairs were apparently lost in the process too.

A few other comments read:

"Tell me you failed high school physics without telling me you failed high school physics" - Damian

"Farmers Insurance. “We know a thing or 2 because we have seen a thing or 2”." - Wayne B. 

"This does not speak for all Michigan ppl" - Steve C. 

Finding ways to entertain yourself during the winter season can, at times, be challenging. But, whatever you're doing please...don't drive your car onto the ice.

It's easy to feel like winter will never end. But, there are some nice things about living in Michigan during the snowy season. Do you agree with this list?