Annual Ice Harvest Took Place 108 Years Ago

Burlington Ice Harvest Will Commence Within Short Time from Tongue River. About Three Thousand Ton Will Be Cut Here. 2500 For Sheridan, was The Headline In the Sheridan Post, Dec. 15, 1914. The Burlington ice harvest to commence within a week or ten days if the weather continues as cold as it has been for the past week and ice gains sufficient thickness for economical handling. About 250 tons will be cut for storage in the three Sheridan ice houses and 500 tons more will be cut for the Gillette house. The Casper division, supplied last year from Sheridan, will cut its own ice this year, storing it at different points along the new line.

The ice for Sheridan will be cut, as in the past, from Tongue River at Ranchester and shipped to Sheridan. An artificial pond has been created at Ranchester by partially damming the river and the ice secured there is of exceptional quality and purity. The ice for Gillette will be cut from the pond owned by the Burlington near that point.

The ice harvest will continue for some time and will afford work for a considerable number of men. The local ice companies are also preparing to cut ice within a few days. The ice on the streams here is now ten inches thick and will soon be ‘Ripe’

Before we had refrigerators, there was ice. Using ice to cool and preserve food goes back to prehistoric times. Seasonal harvesting of ice was a regular practice into the early 20th Century. Trains used ice for the refrigerator cars, also known as ‘reefers.’

In an ad from the Swift Company in the Deaver Sentinel, June 15, 1918, it talks about how refrigeration makes moving beef much easier. Bridging the Gap from Steer to Steak Livestock is raised on the farms and ranches of the West. Meat is eaten in the large cities of the East, and by our boys in France — thousands of miles away. (This was in the latter days of WWI) The day of transporting live animals from ranch to seaboard and overseas has passed. There was too much waste. The modern-day packer locates his large and specialized plants in the producing regions. He ships the dressed beef in refrigerator cars and holds it in his own refrigerated branch warehouses until delivered to the retailer. For shipment to foreign ports, he transfers the meat to refrigerator ships.

This From the Big Piney Examiner, Big Piney. Wyoming, Feb. 27. 1919, it gives an idea why ice is important. Last Call for Ice Harvesting. There Appears to be no Justification for Neglect. Probably the greatest advantage in having a farm icehouse properly filled is that the milk may always be kept cool. But there are a score of other advantages not to be ignored. Some of them pertain to things that may be classed as—summer luxuries? —no, summer necessities. ice cream, iced tea, lemonade, buttermilk, iced watermelons, iced cantaloupes, iced fruits—every one of them an item in the summer diet that can be regarded as contributions to the health, happiness and prosperity of the family.

Unless there is natural ice in the farm icehouse, they are rarely to be had. Even if the head of the family is perfectly willing to bear the expense of buying artificial ice, the time is sure to come—in most cases, it comes frequently—when there is not time to get the ice from town, times when everybody is busy in the harvest or hay field and when the familiar but disheartening plea of “let it wait till tomorrow” Is heard and must be heeded.

Ice Relieves Suffering. Indeed, it can be heeded with some degree of patience when the ice would mean only a more palatable dessert for dinner. But, on one of those hot harvest days, one of the men is brought in overheated from the field, or one of the children becomes suddenly ill of something that an ice pack would go a long way toward relieving. Such things seem to occur just at those times when the icebox is empty—and the need is so urgent that there is no time for going to town for ice. Unnecessary suffering is the inevitable result—inevitable except when there is on the farm an icehouse filled from the pond or stream during the winter.

The harvesting of ice is so simple a matter that there appears no justification for its neglect by those who live in natural Ice regions. Yet, the fact remains that many such do neglect it. Even for those who have not a regularly constructed ice house, there are possibilities, ice may he stored and kept with a fair degree of success in the cellar, a corner of the woodshed, in any one of a score of nooks, to be found about every farmstead. Such storage places cannot be recommended for permanent use. They entail a much heavier loss by melting than do properly constructed houses. But, with the proper use of sawdust, planing mill shavings or other cheap insulator, they can be made to keep ice through the summer. The United States Department of Agriculture goes so far as to say that, where ice is abundant and the cost of gathering it low, storage in makeshift places may be more economical than the building of scientifically constructed houses and does not hesitate to recommend it as an expedient to serve until there is time for the construction of the right sort of house.

Thick Cakes Not Essential, and it does not require weather very cold and long-continued to put a three or four-inch coat over the pond. The department of agriculture recommends neighborly co-operation in ice harvesting. Two, three, or more families Joining forces and using the same pond or stream, if convenient, can do the work much more easily and expeditiously than the working force of one farm alone ordinarily can do it. Also, when done by two or more families jointly, Ice harvesting partakes of the nature of a picnic and the work is done, without anybody thinking of it as a disagreeable task.

The cutting of Ice is a very simple operation. The method recommended by the department of agriculture Is to mark off the pond in rectangular figures of convenient size, then to saw out a strip from shore to shore and force it under the ice, leaving an open channel to the bunk. Pieces as large as can be handled are thoroughly sawed out on either side, pulled ashore by men with ice hooks or by a horse on the bank, then loaded on the wagon or sled. The method of storing varies. If the ice is to be stored in a properly constructed icehouse with commercial insulation, little packing Is needed.

If a house not equipped with commercial insulation, or some other makeshift storage space Is used, the ground should be covered with 12 inches of sawdust or planing-mill shavings before the ice is put In. A 12-inch space should be left between the ice and the walls and should be tightly tilled in with sawdust or shavings, and a covering of 18 Inches of sawdust or shavings should be placed over the Ice. Planing-mill shavings are preferable to sawdust, being more absorbent and not so much inclined to pack. Whether sawdust or shavings are used, care must be taken that the material is thoroughly dry.

Ice harvesting was big business during the early 1900s in Sheridan. The Sheridan Enterprise, December 28, 1915, Begin Next Week The ice harvest will begin in Sheridan the latter part of the week. The ice has attained a thickness of about eleven inches. The Sheridan City Ice company will store about 3000 tons in its ice houses on North Jefferson Street. The company also has a contract to put of 600 tons at Fort Mackenzie. The Crystal Ice company plans to begin harvesting the first crop of ice about Friday. They expect to get about 2000 tons the first crop and the second about 2000 tons more. Owing to the absence of any great amount of snow, the quality of the ice is exceptionally good this year.

Even Powder River provided ice. In the Gillette News, from Crook County, (This was before Campbell County was formed) January 17, 1908 Sam Gaining Fame Sam Turner came down from Arvada to tell the boys all about the ice harvest and the latest yarns from Powder River. This was his first experience in the ice business and judging from the rapidity with which he loaded eight cars, it must have been a most successful venture. Watch out for the Powder River Ice Trust,

The Wyoming Stockman-Farmer Cheyenne, Wyo., January, 1920 talks about it being a way to supplement farm income.

A Winter Crop – There is one paying crop that can be harvested in the winter. It is ice, and the labor problem is much less serious during the ice harvest than at any other time of year. The sweet milk and cream and the cold drinks and ice cream that can be had at any time during the summer will more than repay all the cost and labor of putting up the ice. All that is needed to have ice in the summer is an inexpensive ice house and a water supply not too far away. A pond of water, a river or a reservoir is a good place to cut ice. Care should be taken, however, that the water to be used for ice is pure. The pond or stream should be cleaned of vegetable matter before it freezes; otherwise it will be frozen in the ice. The water supply should also be protected from drainage from contaminated sources such as privies, barnyards and refuse heaps and snow should be kept off the surface as it retards freezing.

Only a few inexpensive tools are needed to cut ice. All the tools required for the average farm or ranch are two saws, two pairs of ice tongs, two ice hooks, a pointed bar and a straight board for marking. The size of house needed will depend on the kind and amount of cooling to be done. Where cream only is cooled, allow at least one-half a ton of ice per cow. For cooling milk allow one and one-half tons per cow. These quantities will leave a margin for household use. It is better to have too much than too little.

Wherever it is practicable the icehouse should be built in the form of a cube. There should be good drainage, insulation and ventilation. For insulation and packing around the ice chaff, sawdust or shavings may be used. Anyone interested in putting up ice should write to the Dairy Division, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C, for information on ice houses and the use of ice on the farm. An icehouse will make the winter work payback with interest in the summer.

Ice and snow was also used to fill cisterns, often a hole in the ground lined with concrete. The ice kept the water cool for much of the summer. Ice was also used in the hand ice cream churns used to make ice cream on a hot summer day.

Today, we tend to forget that such delicacies as ice cream, cold milk and frozen foods were once not available in every home refrigerator. It took hard work and pre-planning to harvest and store ice during the cold months of winter so one could have cool milk and ice cream during the summer. But ice harvesting was big business in Sheridan over 100 years ago.