Harvesting Winter

[Subdeacon Joe]

The Ice-Cutters of the Great Lakes
Before the era of refrigeration, the harvesting of ice from the frozen Great Lakes was a massive, brutal industry. Each winter, crews of ice-cutters would venture onto the thick ice of lakes like Michigan and Erie. Using horse-drawn plows and massive saws, they would score the surface into a grid and cut huge, crystal-clear blocks. Men like "Big Jim" O'Malley, a foreman from Chicago, led teams that worked in sub-zero temperatures and blinding snow squalls, their beards frozen solid with ice. The blocks were then transported to massive, insulated ice houses lining the shores, where they were packed in sawdust to last through the summer. This ice would be shipped on specially designed ice barges to cities across the Midwest, preserving food and cooling drinks. It was dangerous work; men could easily slip into the freezing water or be crushed by shifting ice. O'Malley's saying was: "We're not just cutting ice; we're harvesting winter to make summer bearable." The industry vanished with modern refrigeration, but for a century, it was a vital part of the national economy.

#IndustrialHistory #19thCentury #GreatLakes #LaborHistory #AmericanMidwest #fblifestyle

 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I still recall the Ice Man making deliveries when I was a child.

First on a horse drawn wagon and then a truck.

Big ice tongs and a leather protector on his shoulder when he carried the block into the house and placed it in the ice box.

[MizPete]

1 hour ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

I still recall the Ice Man making deliveries when I was a child.

One of Dad's first jobs.  He was still in high school.

[Texas Jack Black]

1 hour ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

I still recall the Ice Man making deliveries when I was a child.

First on a horse drawn wagon and then a truck.

Big ice tongs and a leather protector on his shoulder when he carried the block into the house and placed it in the ice box.

 Man you are old😉

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

6 minutes ago, Texas Jack Black said:

 Man you are old😉

 

Me, too!  

 

I remember when grandma's ice box went away... she got a new GAS refrigerator!  I recall lying on my tummy in the kitchen, gazing at the little blue flame in the bottom of the reefer and marvelling at how fire could make cold. 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Hardpan, I remember marveling at the same thing for the same reason!
Thank you, that's a good memory!

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

3 hours ago, Texas Jack Black said:

 Man you are old😉

Yep!

82 this Christmas.

There was still a lot of rationing going on, in Canada, when I was a kid.

My Father had to wait until 1950 to get the new car he put his name down for in 1948 or '49

(He had a Super Cub before he had a car.)

[Rye Miles #13621]

I’m 78 and never had an ice man! My parents however do remember them. 

[Alpo]

We never had a milkman - mama bought our groceries, including milk, at the commissary.

 

But I remember when I was about 3 or 4 years old looking out the window in my room and seeing the milkman stopped across the street. So we still had milkmen in the late 1950s. Just not at my house.

 

Never saw an Iceman anywhere except on TV.

[Rip Snorter]

Just a skosh older than you, but I recall the ice man in my Grandfather's neighborhood including weight cards users put in the window if they needed ice.  25, 50, 75, 100!  Number at the top was the order.  Inner ring suburb of NYC!

[J-BAR #18287]

The original J-Bar delivered ice to a beautiful widow on a Saturday in Decatur, Texas, in 1896. They were married the following Saturday.  They had 9 more children to accompany the 2 he already had (a widower) and the 2 she already had (a widow).  My dad was their 13th child, in 1916.
 

An AI rendition of their wedding photo:

 

 

Icemen rock!

 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

My parents bought an old house that still had the original ice box that was built in to an outside wall. The ice man could access the ice compartment from the outside on the back porch, negating the need to come in the house. When they remodeled the house, dad tore it out and turned the space into a kitchen broom closet. (It had not been used as an ice box in decades.)

 

 

[watab kid]

i remember days when the ice man delivered to the door at my grandparents house , as did the mi=lk man at bot theirs and ours , 

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

The original J-Bar delivered ice to a beautiful widow on a Saturday in Decatur, Texas, in 1896. They were married the following Saturday.  They had 9 more children to accompany the 2 he already had (a widower) and the 2 she already had (a widow).  My dad was their 13th child, in 1916.
 

An AI rendition of their wedding photo:

 

 

Icemen rock!

 

 

By the Sepulcure !  She's gorgeous!

[Michigan Slim]

My hometown had an ice house. As lumbering was big then too, sawdust from the mill was plentiful. Before my time though. 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

21 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

I still recall the Ice Man making deliveries when I was a child.

First on a horse drawn wagon and then a truck.

Big ice tongs and a leather protector on his shoulder when he carried the block into the house and placed it in the ice box.

 was visiting family in Williamsport, PA, and the ice man came by with ice for my aunt.  I was fascinated watching the operation.

 

 

[WD Farren]

Back when Dad was still alive (80s) he had a place in Horseshoe Bend, ID.

There was a genuine ice house in town, so we stopped by.

 

The owner told us the walls were 24 inches thick and filled entirely with sawdust from the lumber mills.

I remember it being damn cold, even though it was high summer at the time.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 9/3/2025 at 1:36 PM, Texas Jack Black said:

 Man you are old😉

If he are, I are.  I remember following an old chain drive Mack truck around on hot days bumming chunks of ice from the driver.

 

That was better than the ice cream and soda pop carts because it didn't cost anything and a quarter pound or so piece of ice would last for hours.

[Texas Jack Black]

2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

If he are, I are.  I remember following an old chain drive Mack truck around on hot days bumming chunks of ice from the driver.

 

That was better than the ice cream and soda pop carts because it didn't cost anything and a quarter pound or so piece of ice would last for hours.

 I am right there with you.👍

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

and a quarter pound or so piece of ice would last for hours.

That brings back a memory.

 

Summertime. Mama would take an ice cube out of the freezer and wrap a paper towel around it, so there was an inch or so of the cube sticking up but you were holding on to the towel so you didn't freeze your hands. And she'd give you a salt shaker. Sprinkle salt on the ice cube and lick it.

 

Poor Man's Otter Pop.

[Cypress Sun]

Believe it or not, there was an operational icehouse in Clearwater Florida for years when I was growing up. It was an old wooden building on Drew St. right next to the railroad tracks. We used to ride our bikes and stand outside the building on the way to the beach to cool off. Sometimes the man inside would bring out some ice water in a pitcher and we'd share the pitcher of water between us and take the pitcher back to the man at the loading dock. Hadn't thought about that in a long time.

[Rip Snorter]

When my kids were in early teens we went to the oldest Dude Ranch, I believe in the country, several times.  Opened the year Custer lost. They had a turn of the century ice plant and every cabin had an antique ice box, with ice delivered daily.  A wonderful step back in time.  No phone in the room, no TV, coal fired cast iron stove for heat.  Modern bathrooms, authenticity can go too far!  Can't recall if there was cell service, or if we had cell phones yet.  On the third visit, the gent who knew how to run the ice plant had retired.  Something was lost with the installation of crappy little white refrigerators in place of the ice boxes.  An amazing place.  Life moved on, and we haven't been back.  Many stories about our visits, even the last great, that I will spare you from suffering!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

JFWITW, I used Wyoming ice fields as one of the settings in my book LEGENDS.  The end of a really vile bad guy occurred on the ice field.

 

Read it.  You'll like it!  I do.