Despite lack of snow, Bartz Brothers debut gigantic seal sculpture in New Brighton

Huge seal snow sculpture debuted in New Brighton

Even with the lack of snow, the Bartz Brothers were able to showcase a huge seal snow sculpture at New Brighton's "Brave the Brr" celebration Saturday.

NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. (FOX 9) - Standing at 21 feet tall and 48 feet long, "Sparky the Seal" is an impressive sight. It's the latest creation by the Bartz Brothers, who started making snow sculptures in their front yard in 2012.

From a gigantic whale to a snail, they've made some pretty cool things over the years, but Sparky is their largest sculpture yet. It's now the centerpiece of New Brighton's "Brave the Brr" celebration at Brightwood Hills Golf Course, where hundreds stopped by on Saturday to take their picture alongside the carved snow and ice.

Making this all happen in the midst of a bitter cold snap and an extreme lack of snow was not easy.

"It was super challenging. Usually, we... start piling whenever we get snow and this year resulted in us just waiting," said Connor Bartz.

The city helped them out with a snow maker, but they had to search for even more of the white stuff.

"A few people donated snow...the Winter Carnival donated a little snow, and we scraped from a few parking lots and got a little bit with the like inch of snow that we got... we kind of compiled that all together, and we got enough," said Connor.

"Brave the Brr" runs throughout the month of January. The Bartz Brothers plan to have the snow sculpture up through February 15th.