Casino owner donating big antique organ to arena

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 11:45 a.m.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Casino owner Ralph Engelstad is donating an antique organ for the arena that bears his name.

An architect of the Engelstad Arena said the Mortier Dance Organ is more than 26 feet long, 19 feet tall and 6 feet wide.

"It's a very large organ that has a lot of instruments in it," architect James Kobetsky said. He did not know its value but said it dates to the 1920s.

Dance organs once were called fair organs because they were popular during turn-of-the-century fairs and carnivals. Much like player pianos, the dance organs play programmed music.

"I can't think of another arena that has something of this magnitude and this special," Kobetsky said. "I can see people just coming to the arena to hear it."

Engelstad owns the Imperial Palace hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

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