Harvesting Ice and Iceboxes

Ice harvesting on the Fox river

Railroads were a large consumer of ice blocks to stock their refers.

John Rentschler posted two photos with the comment: "Ice Harvest on the Mississippi  .. Clinton Iowa  See the blocks of ice going up in the Ice House?"

Ed Schloz: And used sawdust to insulate the blocks for the next summer use!!!!

John Rentschler: The walls were insulated with 6-8 inch blocks of cork.

Tom Lindsay: When I was young there were lots of ice houses around still filled with saw dust.

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Raymond Storey posted

 

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Michael Siola posted

Michael Siola posted
Lori Lucas-Martinez: What purpose is cutting the ice for...

Marlon Harvey commented on Lori's comment

Terry Wisel Heintz posted
Pleasant Lake.

Craig Jon Berndt posted
Pleasant Lake Ice Co., undated. Phone number 176. The blanket on the horse reads DEKALB xxxxx CO. HARDWARE.
Gail Barnard: Does this go back to the big old ice houses on the east side of the railroad tracks [NYC]? My dad (Byron Gramling 1912-1981) once drew for my son a schematic of the process with the cutting on the west end of the lake and conveyors up and over the road to where ice was stored in the big ice houses for use by the railroads in their passenger cars. I believe he said there was a kind of grass (he referred to it as swamp grass, but it likely had a scientific moniker) used to insulate around and between the big blocks. Quite a process in those days. One can only assume there were local outlets for the same product. Fascinating bit of history for a sleeping looking little town whose footprint went miles beyond. Gail Gramling Barnard.
[I suspect that NYC was more concerned about icing the refers than their passenger cars.]
Lori Smith DeMille: Last year, a couple of days before my father passed away, he had a day of clarity. He could not have any cold water, and he started talking about the ice house at Pleasant Lake as if he were still there in the moment. I didn’t know if there was such a place or not. Thank you for sharing this.

1:00 video @ 0:05

The icehouse in Newburgh, IN, has been preserved.

DeBruler-icehouse

DeBruler-icehouse

ReconnectWithNature
Forest Preserve District of Will County posted
Lake Renwick is now a place known for the birds, but back in the day it was an ice harvesting hot spot.

safe_image for THE BIG CHILL

another safe_image for THE BIG CHILL
Forest Preserve District of Will County posted again
Throwback Thursday: As we brace for some very cold temperatures, a look back at how activity around some current forest preserves used to heat up when the mercury dropped.
Eileen Broderick Postregna: Do you know what the year is?
Forest Preserve District of Will County: We do not know the year the photo was taken but we do know that an icehouse was built at the site in 1914 and large blocks of ice were stored there until they were shipped to Chicago. Ice harvesting continued until 1924 when the icehouse was destroyed by fire.

I learned from this video that the ice was stored in the smaller top compartment. I assume the bottom compartment is the colder food and the tall compartment is a little warmer. Of course, refrigeration made iceboxes obsolete.

Urban Remains, cropped

DeBruler-refrigeration