Morstoel provides theme of festival
It was the time of year again to celebrate with the coolest dead guy around. Nederland was home to the sixth annual Frozen Dead Guy Days March 9-11. These three days focused on grandpa Bredo Morstoel, the frozen dead guy who is cozily packed in dry ice living in a tuff shed.
Since first being discovered in the spring of 1994, Morstoel has been frozen thanks to the science of cryonics. In cryonics, right before death the person is infused with a chemical that will stop ice from forming. The whole body, at once, is cooled to a temperature that stops the decaying process and stored in liquid nitrogen, or in this case dry ice. Morstoel will stay in this icy state until the day comes that he can be revived, if that day ever comes.
There’s a lot of work to keep this frozen dead guy on ice. It takes about one ton of dry ice a month, which is brought in by Bo Shaffer, a planetary ecologist at Delta Tech, to keep Morstoel chilling. Because of this unusual task, Shaffer has earned the name The Iceman. Shaffer described his role as, “Glue that holds it all together.” Even though he’s not directly connected with the festival, Shaffer puts the “frozen” in dead guy days. He has to be very careful to maintain Morstoel’s fragile and unique environment or any chances of bringing Morstoel back will be ruined.
Morstoel died in Norway and after his death, his grandson, Trygve Bauge, brought him the U.S. Once grandpa arrived in the community, Nederland passed an ordinance outlawing “the position of human body parts.” However, this frozen dead guy was allowed to stay because he got “grandfathered” in.
After bouncing ideas off her husband for unique ways to bring an economic contribution to the Nederland community, Teresa Warren, co-coordinator of the festival, finally found the perfect and logical event. Warren took the idea of Frozen Dead Guy Days to the Nederland Chamber of Commerce and they got behind the idea right away.
Warren said that the festival is usually a “celebration of life,” but this year it’s a celebration of spring after the hard winter.
Just like the past six years, this festival had a little bit of something for everyone. The festivities kicked off with the official ceremony at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 9. Some highlights of Friday evening were the family skate on Nederland ice rink, Grandpa’s Blue Ball with live music and a look-a-like contest, and finally the crowning of the ice queen.
The fun didn’t stop on Friday night. For the rest of the weekend there were events galore. From frozen turkey bowling to book signings to coffin races, there was never a dull moment.
Contact Campus Press Staff writer Emilie Johnson at esjohnso@thecampuspress.com
