Ice Harvesting: An Age-Old Tradition

A circular ice saw is maneuvered into place to cut a grid for the removal of ice from Squam Lake. (Courtesy Rockywold Deephaven Camps)

By Thomas P. Caldwell

In the days before refrigeration solved the problem of keeping foods from spoiling, people used to harvest frozen water from ponds and lakes and store it in insulated “iceboxes” or ice houses to keep it from melting. Old-timers still sometimes call a refrigerator an icebox, but the term is slipping away as people lose track of how important ice storage used to be. Entire businesses were built around the ice harvest, but today it is almost a lost art.

The Remick Country Doctor Museum and Farm in Tamworth, whose mission is to teach the values and significance of the country doctor’s medical practice and agricultural way of life, has held ice-harvesting demonstrations through the years, but recent warm winters have interfered with those plans and Dawne Gilpatrick, the museum’s marketing coordinator, said there will be no ice-harvesting this year.

One holdout is Rockywold Deephaven Camps in Holderness, where ice-harvesting remains an important tradition. In late January, ice-harvesting took place as it has every year since the late 1800s.

When Rockywold Deephaven Camps purchased seven refrigerators as the first step in phasing out its ice boxes in the late 1960s, camp guests objected. During an interview in 2015, Norm Lyford of Ashland, who had helped with the ice harvest for 72 years, recalled, “The campers objected. They didn’t want [refrigerators]. They liked being able to take an ice pick and chop the ice off, and they said they wouldn’t come back again unless they got the iceboxes back.”

That camp relented.

It takes 3,600 of the 15.5-inch by 19.5-inch by 12-inch-thick blocks of ice, each weighing about 115 pounds, to supply the cottage ice boxes in the summer. That is more than 200 tons of ice to be harvested, moved, and stored — 2,000 blocks in the Rockywold Ice House and about 1,600 blocks in the Deephaven Ice House. The ice is insulated by sawdust to keep it frozen until it is delivered to the antique iceboxes in each cottage. It is not unusual to have some ice still sitting in the ice houses after the last guests have left in September.

Cutting ice into cubes. (Courtesy Rockywold Deephaven Camps)

History of ice harvesting

Harvesting ice is a centuries-old tradition, but it turned into a business for enterprising people in the 19th century. By the 20th century, there were companies springing up to satisfy consumers’ needs for cold food storage both locally and around the world.

In Bristol, the Charles A. Carr Company formed as a coal and ice supplier in the greater Newfound Region. The family harvested ice from Newfound Lake and stored it lakeside in an ice house. As electrical refrigeration became common, the company evolved from coal and ice to home heating oil delivery.  In the mid-1980s, Dead River Company of Maine purchased the Carr Company, and David Carr, the founder’s son, built a lakeside retirement home on the old ice house property.

In Laconia, the Morrill-Atwood Ice Company of Wakefield, Massachusetts, maintained ice houses around Lake Paugus to help supply large hotels in Boston in the early 1900s. The ice houses were built adjacent to the railroad tracks, allowing the company to load the ice onto freight trains and ship it wherever it was needed. Later, the Rudzinski family opened the Laconia-Lakeport Ice Company which, although still in operation, now makes its own ice, rather than harvesting it from Lake Winnipesaukee.

The Gifford-Wood Company, which evolved from an ice tool manufacturing company started by William T. Wood in 1845 and consolidated operations with Gifford Brothers of Hudson, New York, in 1905, made most of the ice-harvesting equipment that Rockywold Deephaven Camps still uses today.

The growing demand for ice led Frederic Tudor (the “Ice King”), to develop international trade routes, shipping ice to the southern United States, the Caribbean, and as far away as India.

Moving those heavy blocks of ice used to be accomplished by a yolked steer team, and the Remick Museum’s demonstrations highlighted how they pulled wooden sleds to transport the ice for storage.

It is much easier today.

Blocks of ice are moved up a conveyor into a truck. (Tom Caldwell Photo)

The process

Judging the right time for the ice harvest is important. The ice has to be at least 8 to 12 inches thick to support the weight of workers and equipment. The ice used to get thick enough to harvest in December, but with warmer seasons in recent years, it has taken until late January or even February to have sufficiently thick ice for the harvest.

Rockywold Deephaven Camps aims for a 12-inch ice depth. If the ice gets too thick — more than 15 inches deep — it can have irregularities that spoil the blocks. Harvesting such blocks serves another purpose, however: They are placed around the perimeter of the ice-harvest area as a warning to snowmobilers and others out on Squam Lake that any ice forming over the hole may be unsafe.

Before harvesting the ice, the crews have to remove any snow from the surface. Not only does that provide access to the ice; it also ensures that the ice is sufficiently frozen. Snow can act as an insulator to slow down the freezing process and lead to thinner or uneven layers of ice.

In the early days, those cutting into the ice used hand saws and chisels; today, there are power tools to make the job much quicker and easier.

The process begins by scoring the ice to create a grid pattern on the surface of the lake or pond. Ice saws then cut along the lines to sever sections of ice. Ice-breaking tools or bars work at the ice to free the blocks and guide them along channels to the edge for removal.

Workers then use ice pikes and ice tongs to grab the blocks and get them out of the water where they are loaded onto sleds, wagons, or trucks. It is rare to see oxen or horses perform that task today. Instead, the blocks are loaded onto a powered conveyor belt that lifts them onto the waiting transport vehicle.

Once harvested and loaded, the ice is transported to the ice house where more labor is required to unload and stack the blocks before insulating them with sawdust or hay. The ice house itself is designed with thick walls, which may be made of wood, stone, or brick to help maintain the temperature and keep the ice from melting.

Rockywold Deephaven Camps created a manual that establishes the procedures to make sure the ice harvest is efficient and safe. It begins with spending the weeks prior to the harvest making sure that the equipment is ready for service. When it is time for the harvest, a tool shed and loading chute are brought onto the ice, with an ice ramp making sure the trucks can get onto and off the ice safely.

The manual also includes guidance on accessories such as ice cleats to prevent slippage on the ice, and there are signs to indicate areas of thin ice.

The camp uses power equipment, including a circular ice saw and chainsaws, and they make sure to have a spare engine for the circular saw, because, if they miss their window of opportunity, the ice conditions will change and make the harvest impossible.