On the January 2026 episode of Crossroads of Rockland History podcast, host Clare Sheridan welcomed Timothy Englert, co-founder of Rockland County‘s Knickerbocker Ice Festival with Rob Patalano (1964-2025), returning on January 24-25, 2026.
Rockland Lake became world famous a century before it became a Rockland Lake State Park as “the ice box of New York City,” thanks in part to the Knickerbocker Ice Company’s large-scale harvesting operations from the 1830s to the 1920s which shipped ice as far as Australia, Asia and South Africa.
Englert shares how he and Patalano created the ice festival that thrilled thousands from 2007 to 2013 with huge ice sculptures along the banks of the 256-acre lake, located in the eastern part of the Town of Clarkstown in Rockland County, NY.
The festival will once again invite visitors to stroll through the park to see ice sculptures being made and keep warm at campfires and a variety of food trucks.
The park’s northern pavilion will feature huge enlargements of historic postcards depicting Rockland Lake’s history, and rare footage shot by Thomas Edison and projected ten feet tall depicting ice harvesting at Rockland Lake more than 125 years ago.
You can listen to the podcast here and learn more about the upcoming festival here.
The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.
Photo of an ice carving at the Knickerbocker Ice Festival in 2009 (provided by the festival).
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