by Bob Gunter
Anyone fortunate enough to be born before the days of modern refrigeration remembers the sound of the horse and wagon or truck nearing the house with its load of huge blocks of ice.
The iceman would take his ice pick and magically chip away until a smaller block would appear just the right size for the waiting icebox inside the house. If a child was good and stayed out of the way then the ice chips would be given to him/her to be wrapped in a piece of newspaper and sucked on with heavenly delight. The ice would then be picked up by tongs and carried to the back porch or kitchen. The transaction would end with, "That will be 10 cents, please," and everything in the old icebox would be safe until the next visit from the iceman.
On special days two blocks would be purchased and one would end up, with a liberal amount of course ice cream salt, in the hand turned ice cream freezer. After what seemed an eternity of turning the cream would be pronounced "ready" and the freezer would be wrapped with either bags or old newspapers to "set." It seemed hours before the top was removed to reveal to numerous young eyes the beauty of the contents.
The Iceman - Cocollala Idaho
Click photo to enlarge
Few people knew or cared where the large blocks of ice originated. There were many people from the east that ate fruit and berries that were refrigerated by the ice harvested from Cocolalla Lake about 15 miles from Sandpoint, Idaho. Passengers on the Northern Pacific Railroad were assured good ice water as they traveled from west to the east because of the ice of Cocolalla. There was a huge ice plant located on the south end of the lake and in the winter it employed a large number of men. There was a huge barn and two blacksmiths were kept busy putting spiked shoes on the horses used in the ice harvest.
The Sandpoint Daily Bulletin reported in 1922 just how big the operation was of the Cocolalla Ice Company; "One hundred and ten cars are being loaded daily, or 3,500 tons; while 2,500 tons are being daily shipped up the loading chains into the mammoth icehouse. The cars (railroad) are loaded 16 cars at a time..." for shipment to the railroad's ice stations that were located at Yakima, Ellensburg, Toppenish, Walla Walla, Pasco and Spokane, Washington.
Today there is nothing along the beautiful shore line of Lake Cocolalla that would indicate that years ago there existed bunk houses, barns, and ice houses that was the source of prime "blue ice" for the nation.
All photographs have been used with permission of the Bonner County Museum. |
