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Do you remember the ice harvests? Do you remember the Johnston Ice Co.? Do you remember having a block of ice delivered once a week to your “ice box” to keep your butter and milk cold? Waseca was lucky to have a large lake here in town as a source for ice! How did they keep the ice into the warm months of spring and summer? What do you remember!
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I was a little girl in the late 1940s on the east side of St. Paul. And I remember when the iceman came. He was a burly man with a swatch of black rubber caped across his shoulders to protect him from the block of ice he hoisted there with a pair of large tongs. He’d bring it right into our kitchen and dropped it in our ice box. The ice box was insulated and was kept cold with that one block of ice! Very gradually the ice melted and water filled a tray below. Sometimes my brother and I would help mom empty that tray when it got full. And every week we received another ice delivery. By the 1950s most people had an electric refrigerator, and we did, too. But for years, many people held onto their icebox until ice was no longer delivered.
The Waseca County Museum will be presenting the Annual Ice Harvest on WED, FEBRUARY 17, 10-3 at Clear Lake Park. Come and learn about the Ice Harvest! Watch then score, cut and haul the ice to the little Ice House. Then come to Chautauqua at Maplewood Park next July 3 and look in the little Ice House and see if the ice is still there! What do you think?
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