Cold, and proud of it: The communities of International Falls, Minn., and Fraser, Colo., will soon be squaring off in court over who owns the rights to the nickname "Ice Box of the Nation."
Courtesy pbo31The meteorologists are prepping us Minnesotans for our coldest blast of the winter season in the coming days.

But things are heating up in court for two towns that want to be know as the “Ice Box of the Nation.”

I’ve always thought International Falls as being the place of that distinctive honor as our meteorologists have been hammered us with those words of decades. Officially, International Falls has made that claim since 1948.

Now along comes Fraser, Colorado, which has been using the same slogan since 1956. It slapped a lawsuit on International Falls for using the same terminology. International Falls did the good old American thing when faced with such a situation, found a lawyer and filed a counter-suit against Fraser.

And this isn’t the first time the communities have squared off in court. Fraser settled a suit with International Falls in 1986 by dropping its claim to “Ice Box of the Nation” in exchange for $2,000. But International Falls forgot to renew its trademark privileges in 1996 and Fraser seized that opportunity to get the trademarked slogan.

Now it’s back to court for the communities.

But why do lawyers and judges have to get involved? Can’t science prove this once and for all? Can’t the thermometers of International Falls and Fraser prove without a doubt which site is colder? Whichever one comes up a little bit warmer could be dubbed the “Thermos of the Nation.”

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