Skate Street, located in Viking Ship Park.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Freezing temperatures? No problem. As the last slick veneer of ice is added this week, excitement over Moorhead’s newest winter attraction is definitely heating up.
It’s called Skate Street. The slick, icy thoroughfare follows a long-abandoned avenue along the Red River north of the Hjemkomst Center. Brightly lit by night, the picturesque skating venue slides along the historic local neighborhood once called The Point – now better known as Viking Ship Park.
The polished frozen parkway is the brainchild of Dan Mahli, Anna Kann and Steve French. Mahli and French, an innovator who calls his business Special Projects FM, have history: They created Mary’s Tunnel in January 2021, the celebrated, brightly lit structure that drew hundreds of visitors to the park and, says local legend, hosted several marriage proposals. Together with Kann, the FM Community Theatre’s “minister of magic-making,” they’ve been working since before Christmas to create a romantic alternative to hockey rinks for those whose blades skim the ice.
“We wanted to add more fun to our public space,” Dan Mahli explains. “We do three seasons really well. Why not four?”
Working on a shoestring budget, the trio has built a sparkling January wonderland. Visitors are greeted by four imposing panels incised with snowflakes. They enter a path illuminated by strings of overhead lights, pausing to don their skates on 13 hand-hewn benches built from lumber left over from theatre sets.
Skate Street may be offering a fresh take on the riverside, but it follows a historic route. The area now encompassed by the park was long known as The Point, the original settlement in what was to become Moorhead. Its blocks of dilapidated houses were demolished in 1971 after years of disastrous flooding, along with the random rickety old saloon. That cleared the way for Viking Ship Park.
When the neighborhood disappeared, the street that crossed it evaporated as well. Only the stately elms that lined it remain. Now they flank the iceway that fills in its footprint, waiting to welcome new generations to the historic riverside.
Mahli expects Skate Street to reach peak form in coming days, depending on the weather. “Skating on the river just isn’t feasible these days,” he observes. “This is going to be even better.”