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Harrison to Re-Create its Ice Harvest

February 18, 2009 - HARRISON -- This time of year, many Mainers get out and have fun on the ice.

Besides the annual Sebago derby on the big lake this weekend, the town of Harrison will host Winter Fest 2009 at Crystal Lake. On Saturday, about 2 feet of ice will support horse-drawn wagon rides, the ever-popular ice fishing derby and a re-creation of an old New England industry: ice harvesting.

Bill Winslow of the Harrison Historical Society – and founder of the Farmers Draft Horse Mule and Pony Club – will bring his horses to haul out blocks freshly cut by a 1920s-era ice-cutting machine at the beach near Crystal Lake Park.

With its nearly 3-foot-diameter blade, the machine looks like something right out of the "Terminator" or "Mad Max" movie series. The old gas-powered saw resembles an angry Rototiller and can cut a 14-inch deep kerf into the ice.

The remaining thickness will then be sawed with traditional ice saws before antique pikes and tongs get the blocks on the surface for the horses to drag them towards the ice house.

Ice harvesting was big business here in Maine a century ago. The climate and remoteness allowed the industry to thrive here after other areas in New Englandbecame increasingly developed.

Commercial ice-harvesting operations were often sprawling, noisy affairs. The hundreds of horses required to haul the ice blocks typically polluted the landscape, which found more populated areas like Boston and outlying areas disliking the industry.

But with long cold winters and wide rivers leading to ports, the Maine woods were made for ice harvesting. Nowhere was this industry more prominent than along the Kennebec River. According to a New York Times article from 1901, the American Ice Co. sought some 4,000 men for that year's harvest along the Kennebec.

Before 1800, only the very wealthy had ice, or those who sought it had to cut it for themselves. Household refrigerators were marketed around 1915 and these spelled the end of the industry. But ice, both naturally and artificially produced, was delivered to some Maine households until about the end of World War II.

In America, the largest ice market in the mid-19th century was often New Orleans, whose residents sought to beat the heat of summer with a cool drink. Breweries also wanted ice.

The ice house at Crystal Lake Park was built to commemorate Harrison's bicentennial in 2005. Winslow said ice harvesting became part of Winter Fest back then to honor the industry, which was busy here in the Lakes Region years ago.

To begin, a scoring device hauled by a horse would carve a line for the ice saw to track in. Before the days of gas-powered saws, this scoring process would be repeated to a sufficient depth where an iron ice plow was inserted to do most of the cutting. Pulled by a team of horses, it's said the plow could cut to within a few inches of the bottom of the ice. The hand saws then finished the job.

"We'll put in about 50 cakes of ice," said Winslow of the blocks, which can weigh upward of 250 pounds. "We'll use it in the summer to chill the ice cream maker."

The harvest in Harrison begins at 10 a.m. Saturday after a buffet breakfast at the Congregational Church. There is no charge to view the activities; a warming fire will be lit outdoors at 11 a.m. where folks are encouraged to bring marshmallows and other ingredients for s'mores. Crystal Lake is right off Route 117.

For more information, contact Paula Holt at 583-2241, or visit www.harrisonmaine.org and click on "Recreation."

Don Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Raymond.

DON PERKINS, Portland Press Herald, February 18, 2009


Lakes: Crystal Lake
Regions: Sebago


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