A suburban parking lot, a big snow pile and a Target shopping cart have combined to create a local attraction that stands as a landmark to our eighth snowiest winter.
They’re even talking about it in England!
“A pile of dirty snow in a parking lot topped with a Target shopping cart has received its own name and has been predicted to stick around until May,” the Independent reported. “The pile of snow in the Eden Prairie Center parking lot has been dubbed ‘Mount Eden Prairie.'”
The snow pile, located in the Target parking lot at 8225 Flying Cloud Dr., is also known as “Mount Target.” The shopping cart at its summit is what inspired Becky Allen to paint it in a creation called “King of the Mountain Shopping Cart – Eden Prairie Target March 2023.”
“If I hadn’t seen the cart on it, I probably would’ve just thought, ‘Oh, that’s a big snowbank’ and kept driving on,” Allen told Robyn Katona of Minnesota Public Radio. “But the cart, it stands out. Who put that there? Why? That’s hilarious!”
Here’s an MPR Facebook post showing Allen’s painting:
The painting, as well as the snow pile, is the focus of social media chatter, including on Reddit and Twitter. The Eden Prairie Police Department even joined the fun:
“Happy first day of spring from Mount Eden Prairie,” the department posted on Monday, with a photo of a squad car in front of the snow mountain:
Happy first day of spring from Mount Eden Prairie. pic.twitter.com/fWFKl8dVNl
— Eden Prairie PD (@EdenPrairiePD) March 20, 2023
It appears that the snow mountain’s cart might have tumbled off since it went viral, but that’s not stopping people’s fun, including a Dirt Path Exploration’s “tour” of it posted on YouTube.
It’s been a tough winter, as we all know. Last week, we asked our Morning Report newsletter readers to let us know about problem potholes. This week, we asked if they knew about snow piles (or puddles, like “Lake Chipotle,” a parking lot in Minneapolis that is prone to flooding).
Here are a few of their replies (edited lightly for spelling and brevity):
“In the parking lot of TJ Maxx, just southwest of the 494 @ 35W interchange (7982 Southtown Center in Bloomington), there is a massive pile of snow and ice that was dumped on a power line tower. It goes almost halfway up the tower and I can see it from the interstate when I drive by it. There was even a video I saw on Instagram of a guy snowboarding off of it. It’s definitely the biggest, most goofy snow pile I’ve seen in the last few weeks.”
“When I was growing up on 46th and 16th, my childhood home was at the corner of two alleys that formed a T, which you can see if you look at a map of that intersection. Anyways, when the weather gets warmer, the snow/ice on Bloomington Avenue takes much longer to melt than the snow/ice in the alley, and my family has affectionately called the resulting water accumulation Lake Bloomington. My mom usually spends some time chopping ice so that it doesn’t get too big.”
“Sure wish we had the 20-30 foot mountains of snow when I was a kid years ago. We could have hollowed out our own fortress for snowball fights. Those opponents didn’t have a chance …”
“I think the biggest one out in St. Paul now is in the old Kmart parking lot off 35E and Maryland. They used to use Sears lot by the Capitol but not as much any more.”
“My name is Beth, and I work for AmplifyDMC in St. Paul. We work out of the Metro Dental/Flannery Construction building at 1375 St. Anthony Ave. Behind our offices, we have a giant pile of snow we’ve affectionately nicknamed ‘Mount Midway.’ Every year, we place bets on when it will finally melt.”
Looks like it could be awhile.
