CLOSED Tuesday Jan. 23, 2024
PLEASE NOTE: Until we have day and night temperatures in the 20s for 7-10 consecutive days we cannot start building the tree. This usually happens in the month of January. Please see our news and updates page or our page on Facebook for real-time updates.
A seasonal Indiana attraction and family tradition that started in the winter of 1961 and continues today! The Veal Ice Tree is a massive icy sculpture created with nearby pond water. The awesome beauty and grandeur of the Ice Tree is impossible to describe – you must experience it in person!
Our address:
6445 Mimosa Lane
Indianapolis, IN 46259
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Experience the Veal Ice Tree up close and personal!
Visit us at: 6445 Mimosa LaneIndianapolis, IN 46259
The driveway is designed with 2-3 spots to park. If you would like to get out of your vehicle for pictures. However, everyone MUST STAY ON THE PAVEMENT, and not cross over or under any rope barriers or enter onto the grass. This is for your safety as the ice is very, very slippery.
Or you can simply drive around the loop and gaze out your window.
For safety reasons, please remain on the blacktop driveway and pavement.
Open 7 days a week from 8:00am to 10:00pm.
We do not accept money or ask for donations. Please donate to Wheeler Mission for the folks who have a difficult time during the freezing weather. Click here to donate to Wheeler Mission
Submit your fan photos on Instagram or Facebook and tag us! @veals_ice_tree
About
In the winter of 1961, our family was spraying a fine mist of water on the hill south of the house to make an ice slide on to the pond. During the night, a strong east wind blew the spray onto some honeysuckle bushes. The result was so beautiful that we sprayed water directly onto the bushes and the Ice Tree was born!
FAQ
Q. How do you start and grow the Ice Tree?
A. Using scrap lumber and binder twine, a frame is built. Traditional garden hoses with ordinary nozzles are tied to the frame. Tree limbs are added around the frame. The fresh cut brush are gathered from field fence-rows. After the ice becomes solid, more brush is added, the hoses are relocated, and the cycle starts anew.
Q. How do you keep the water in the hoses from freezing?
A. Water does not freeze as long as it flows under pressure. Three to six hoses run continuously until warm weather.
Q. Who builds the Ice Tree?
A. The second-generation Ice Tree builder’s engineers/designers are John, and the colorist and social media director is their sister, Janet. The third-generation engineers are Wynter, Kyle and Chad.
Q. Where do you get the water?
A. Originally, the water came from the house well. We installed a submersible pump in the naturally spring-feed pond with underground outlets in 1966.
Q. When do you start the Ice Tree?
A. As soon as the weather forecast has five or more days of temperatures below 30° we start work. The ideal temperatures to grow an Ice Tree are between 29° and 5°. This usually happens in January.
Q. How do you color the Ice Tree?
A. We mix powdered food coloring dye with water and spray the dye onto the Ice Tree with a garden sprayer/ feeder attached to the end of a hose.
Q. When does the Ice Tree melt?
A. Most Ice Trees melt completely in the first weeks of April. One year it endured until May 5th.
Q. Is there a live tree under the ice and doesn’t the ice kill the grass?
A. For three years, we used live bushes on the south side of the house and the ice did not injure them. We moved the Ice Tree to the back you in 1965. Now, there are no live trees under the ice, and the spring grass is lush and beautiful.
Q. How high does the Ice Tree get?
A. In an average year, it grows 35 to 40 feet. The amount of freezing temperatures and amount of time we have to work on the Ice Tree determines the height. In 2014, it towered at an estimated 79-80 feet!
Why?
Why do we do this? Well, we actually have a four part answer to this particular question:
1. We enjoy seeing things grow in warm weather, so in cold weather we delight in growing a dazzling Ice Tree.
2. We love to see visitors’ faces light up with astonishment and delight.
3. It is enormous fun and great exercise.
4. Lastly and most importantly - we are reminded of heart-warming memories of our late father, Vierl G. Veal, the original Ice Tree creator.
We recall the memories of Daddy’s never failing positive outlook on life. He once wrote, “God states in the Bible we can be happy in adverse circumstances.” He didn’t always enjoy the winter weather but he did love to create beauty from adversity. Repeatedly, Daddy found that many events that look like misfortunes to us are really God’s opportunity for us to find greater happiness.
The awesome beauty and grandeur of the Ice Tree is impossible to describe – you must experience it in a personal encounter. Many people think us truly strange at a mere explanation of this winter wonder. But, when those same people discover with their own eyes the majestic splendor, attitudes change from doubt to speechlessness!
The exact same truth holds up when speaking of the beauty and grandeur in a relationship with God. Some feel a personal encounter with God is non-sense, old fashion, or just plain strange. But, upon a personal encounter the doubt changes to speechlessness.
Q. How do you have a personal encounter with God?
¯Realize that no matter where you are in life, God loves you and wants to give His life-giving water to make your life awesome.
¯Admit your imperfections. In just a short time of thinking, you can remember things you have done wrong.
¯Recognize your imperfections keep you from having a beautiful and grand relationship with a Holy God.
¯Discover the grandeur of God’s loving plan. Jesus Christ took on himself all your wrongdoings, and died on the cross in your place. Then He rose from the grave victorious.
Q. Our question to you! Would you like to discover a relationship with God?
1. Agree you do wrong things.
2. Decide you want to change.
3. Believe, by faith, Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave for you.
4. Ask Him into your life.
(Suggested prayer) Lord Jesus, I agree I have done wrong things and I want to change. I believe, by faith, You died for me. I ask You to come into my life.
This number has volunteers to answer your spiritual questions and does not ask for funds.
1-800-NEED HIM
In Memory of Vierl G . Veal
His life left the indelible lesson that we can be happy in adverse circumstances and good things can come form hard times when God is in control of our life.
Dad wrote, “If you’re not on praying terms with God, if you’ve never put Christ in your life, don’t put it off another day.”
Photogallery
Temperatures need to be 30 and below for the tree to sparkle and glisten.
Have a Question?
PLEASE NOTE: Until we have day and night temperatures in the 20s for 7-10 consecutive days we cannot start building the tree. This usually happens in the month of January. Please see our news and updates page or our page on Facebook for real-time updates.
The Veal Family
6445 Mimosa Lane
Indianapolis, IN 46259