Snowman draws a crowd

More than 16 feet tall, the giant snowman towering above homes on once-sleepy Columbine Street is drawing hundreds of locals and tourists and scoring airtime and headlines across the nation -- and even the world.

"I guess they like snowmen in Russia, because they had a news team from Moscow here yesterday," said Billy Powers, Snowzilla's creator. "We get a traffic jam here at least once an hour. It must be people are just tired of hearing about Iraq or something."

Powers stood across the street from his Airport Heights home Thursday afternoon, sipping from a steaming coffee mug and smiling like a proud papa as yet another carload of children rallied around Snowzilla's plump base, grinning and posing for pictures.

Someone told him his creation was a top story on MSN's Web page.

"Is that right?" His smile widened. "Oh my gosh."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg -- or snowman. Newspapers from California to Chicago to North Carolina have picked up the story. It's popped up in Washington, Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois, Arizona, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Kentucky and New Hampshire. It's been in The Dallas Morning News, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Post.

USA Today listed Powers' address.

You know what they say: If you build it, they will come.

And are they coming -- in minivans and sedans, big trucks and little two-doors, all to gawk at a big snowman.

Ashlie McClain, a 23-year-old from Texas visiting family in town, stood wide-eyed before the hulking Frosty.

"My girlfriend was like, 'I'm going to take you to see this big, giant snowman,' and I'm like, 'OK, whatever,' " McClain said. "Then I get here, and it's like, whoa! Did the family just make this for the hell of it?"

Pretty much.

Powers and his kids decided to make a snowman. This was earlier this month, when Anchorage had new snow. So far, so normal, right?

Then it got bigger. And bigger. Darrell Estes, who lives across the street, decided to get in on the action. Looked like fun, he said. The neighborhood kids thought so, too. They tugged sleds loaded with buckets of snow to Powers' front yard.

And they just kept packing it on.

It took Powers, Estes and their free-labor child work force an estimated 40-hours of work. Powers' 11-year old daughter, Brook, sewed the puffy red gloves, bright carrot-shaped nose, the draping plaid scarf and the shiny red band for the black top hat.

Brook had just two words to sum up the Snowzilla spectacle:

"It's big."

Tiny kids scampered up to the snowman and pressed against its base with adoring hugs. Beaming moms snapped photos. Grown men offered appreciative nods. Young couples posed for pictures. Some just slowed down as they drove past, windows down, jaws dropped.

"You don't usually see snowmen like that," said Lachele Carraway, visiting from Georgia.

Her daughter, Cheyenne, scampered around, offering acute observations like, "Mama! That's just a fake carrot!"

It was the first snowman that 6-year-old Cheyenne had ever seen. Well, in person: "I've seen Frosty," she chirped.

Melanie Veeh lives here. She saw the Snowzilla story on CNN. The newscast put the behemoth "somewhere in Alaska," Veeh said. "But they didn't say where. I talked to Kathy and she said it was here."

Kathy Beelmann said she'd heard chatter about Snowzilla on the radio all week. So she and Veeh brought their sons for a peek. The boys paced around it, knocking fists against its firm icy base. "Now they want to know how they made it," Veeh said.

"How long do you think it will take for this to melt?" Beelmann asked the boys.

Robbie Veeh looked thoughtful, then guessed, "Three years."

Powers and Estes estimate Columbine's now seeing close to 1,000 cars a day, round-the-clock.

"It's like 2 a.m. and I'll see a flash-flash of a camera," Estes said.

Neighbors are adjusting to the block's superstar status. Powers hasn't heard any complaints.

And Estes said residents in the Thunderbird Terrace neighborhood who usually use Columbine to get to DeBarr Road are mostly driving around. Mostly.

A few scrooges tore down Columbine on Thursday afternoon, doing Grinch impersonations as they leered at Snowzilla visitors.

But that bah-humbug buzz-kill is a rarity. Paula Toliver lives around the corner. The local kids absolutely love Snowzilla, she said, and it's something for the whole block to be proud of.

"I said to Bill, 'Do you know the story of Frosty the Snowman?' And he said, 'Yeah, but this snowman has really come to life!' And it has."

---

Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com.