The ice man cometh to Lake Itasca
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The next time you go to the fridge to get something to eat, or to grab an ice cube to cool your drink, don't take it for granted. Before the hum of modern refrigerators populated kitchens everywhere, winter itself was the cold storage. Back then, ice had to be literally cut from frozen lakes and delivered to ice boxes at people's homes.
Itasca State Park recently held an event which demonstrated just how painstaking the process once was.
In Minnesota, with its great expanse of timber, the sound of sawing is nothing new. But on this day, it wasn’t timber getting sawed through – it was ice.
On the north end of frozen Lake Itasca, just a couple hundred yards from the Mississippi River headwaters, the nonprofit Lake Itasca Region Pioneer Farmers revealed how old-time ice harvests were done in the past.
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"They would use it for refrigeration throughout the whole summer," said Scott Hemmerich, the history preservation group’s vice president. He added that ice harvests were a tradition in the area from the early 1800s through the 1950s.
The process began by drilling a hole in the ice.
“This is what we use to make the hole,” Hemmerich said, holding up what looked like a miniature hand auger.
After the hole is drilled, a small saw is inserted to groove a path for a much bigger, 6-foot hand saw to reach through the depth of the ice to the water below.
Once a cube shape was cut, the freed ice cube floated. Then the person doing the demonstration used a large pair of tongs to clasp onto the giant ice cube, forcing it to bob in the water.
Two people then hoisted the giant block out of the lake with big tongs.
The clear-cut cubes can weigh a couple hundred pounds. After they were removed from the water, they were slid across the ice into a pile. And later, loaded onto a flatbed trailer.
“In the past, they would actually cut a channel to the shoreline, and they would float the blocks down that channel. Then that way they could load off onto the land,” Hemmerich said. “The bigger companies that did it would have elevators that would load it right up to a railcar into a truck.”
The ice harvested today will be transported by the group to a storage shed. Once there, like in the old days, it will be insulated under sawdust to keep it from melting.
"Back in the day they'd have warehouses of ice,” Tim Ranisate, a member of the group said. “Railcars would be filled with ice like this to ship to different cities. So it was a big deal."
Before electricity, people used to have ice boxes in their homes to keep food from spoiling.
"If you've heard of the ice man, well, that goes back to when they had a local ice delivery service where the guy would come around with a truck. Or, earlier, it would be a horse and a wagon, of course with blocks of ice,” he said. “They'd break off a piece of ice for the person's ice box, which would be in their kitchen."
For those unfamiliar with ice boxes, Ranisate said they were a staple of just about every home in America at one time.
“You'll see ice boxes in antique shops here, in people's homes that are no longer used for this, but that's what they were for,” he said. “They'd have a block of ice in one compartment, and then that would keep the rest of the compartments cool that they had their milk in or whatever, butter, their eggs.”
A second ice harvesting method that became popular in the early 1900s was also demonstrated. But according to Ranisate, it was mostly used during early winter. It resembled a low-profile table saw on skis.
"What we have here is a mechanized ice saw, and it has the engine on a framework, which is kind of like a sled. And that's for the engine,” he said. “It powers the circular saw blade that's dropped into the ice. And then the sled is pulled along as the blade is turning to make a cut through the ice. It looks a little bit like an old wood buzzsaw.”
All work and no play
Why demonstrate all this stuff when we have the ease of getting ice made by our own refrigerators? Sandra Lichter, a park naturalist at Itasca, said part of the point of doing these events is to help people think about how good we have it today.
“Because we have that freezer and refrigerator and electricity, and so it makes it really easy for us to get ice to cool our drinks and put in our cooler,” she said. “But I think it really gives us an appreciation for the life that we have today."
That was a sentiment shared by area resident Art Voelker, who stopped by the park to see what an old-time ice harvest was all about.
"It's a lot of work. What I'm seeing anyway,” he said. “It would be kind of fun to jump in and help out, try it out. But you know, it is what it is, and I'm not dressed for it today."
Voelker said events like this are what makes Minnesota so unique.
“It's really cool. It's fun to watch some of this old equipment get put to use and see the old ways of doing things,” he said. “I think it's great to get out and check out some of this stuff. And when you find out about it, take an hour out of your day and enjoy it.”
The ice harvested by the Itasca Region Pioneer Farmers on this day, will be used to make ice cream at their yearly showcase in August.
