Its creator, Nathan Arnold, said that it’s taken all winter, about ten minutes at a time, to amass the mountain of snow and carve a structure out of it with a shovel and a machete.

“It’s one of those things that really shows that a person can do anything, little by little, no matter how long it takes,” Arnold said.

The snow fort was completed about two weeks ago. Passersby kept stopping and remarking on how impressive the project was, finally prompting a call to the Daily Press last week.

There have been several winters during which Arnold has created different types of snow structures — though not as much in recent years, since his daughter got older, he said.

The central pillar of the snow house of Woodland Estates is shown; standing to the side is builder Nate Arnold, who said he did most of the work in his robe in ten-minute spurts. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

“Whenever all this snow would build up, I would just carve little rooms into it and stuff… square rooms, countertops and stuff. I just let the kids play in it and stuff for years,” explained Arnold, who is originally from Hermansville but has lived in Escanaba for about 20 years.

Once, he made a big tower with a slide and dyed it with food coloring.

Most of those past structures didn’t have roofs. Last year was the first year that Arnold made something similar to the one that he built this winter on the lot next to his home at 1600 S. 30th St. — though this one is grander.

It began by shoveling the fallen snow from his driveway.

“It’s kind of a process. It’s a scientific thing, really, because you can’t just shovel into just a pile of plowed snow; it would collapse on you,” Arnold explained. “Every time we’d get snow, I would push it slowly, slowly into that pile, because you rely on that compression.”

Steps are seen going up the backside of the exterior of the snow fort. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

Instead of building from the outside in — like stacking bricks of ice to form walls — he carved hallways out of the middle of his dense tower, as a sculptor would transform a block of marble.

“That’s the way to make it permanent like this, where it just won’t collapse,” Arnold said.

He explained that he used a “tiny little flathead shovel and a Walmart machete” to pry out chunks one at a time. Arnold used pieces that were removed but still hard-packed ice to create an exterior staircase from the rear of the structure onto its roof.

As he climbed the stairs up to show that the roof was stable enough to support a man’s weight, Arnold remarked that he could see paw prints up there — the neighborhood cats had also climbed to the top.

Since he no longer has small children and is getting older, this may be the last grand snow fort Arnold will undertake. He commented that he was sore and his neck still ached two weeks after finishing carving out the structure.

Standing fully upright, Nathan Arnold of Escanaba is inside one chamber of the snow fort he built near his home. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

However, though Arnold worked hard and persistently, he did so carefully and within his limitations. Because of some health issues, he said, he did the construction in short spurts, only putting in about ten minutes at a time and going back inside for frequent breaks.

After showing the Daily Press around and describing his process, Arnold said, “I’m just glad people get a kick out of it.”

He estimated it will take well into spring for the creation to melt.

The area surrounding the large snow fort at 1600 S. 30th St. has been scraped clear of snow to be used as building material. Center, Nate Arnold has scaled the steps he built to the top of the structure. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)