This Year May End Harvesting of Ice At Alexandria Bay

Alexandria Bay, Jan 31 [1957]--Ice harvesting and storage of St. Lawrence River ice--once a major factor in the winter economy and summer business of this resort area--has dwindled from a total tonnage figure running into the hundreds of thousands to a mere 200 tons, a survey of this immediate Thousand Islands region indicates.

Five employees of the Thousand Islands estate, owned by Edward J. Noble and under the supervision of James McAloon, began the chore of harvesting and storing about two tons of ice for special use at the Thousand Islands Club next summer, last Monday. As far as can be determined locally, the Thousand Islands Club is the last operation in the area to harvest the natural river ice. Despite modern ice making and refrigeration equipment, the club management still gets a demand for river ice among its patrons from the older members of the wealthy Thousand Islands summer colony who make the club their headquarters during the summer.

Mr. McAloon indicated that the 200 pound cakes of river ice do have a more lasting quality than manufactured ice of the same size but that, nevertheless, this would probably be the last year that the club would attempt a harvest. Operation ice harvest at the present time is in sharp contrast to the word pictures presented by old timers in the area who present the annual winter harvest as a colorful and exciting episode in an otherwise dreary winter period.

Before the days of ice making machines, efficient power generating plants and the expansion of public utilities, the ice house was one of the larger and more important buildings on any millionaire's Thousand Islands estate. Commercial ice concerns also thrived throughout the area and maintained buildings that were capable of storing up to 40,000 tons of ice each. There were three such concerns at Alexandria Bay alone.

Ross Parker, Cornelius Springer, Samuel Miller and William Miller are remembered as operators of large ice distributing firms which could never quite store enough river ice each year to meet the ever increasing demand. The Thousand Island House, Crossmon House, Marsden Hotel and samller operations in the area all stored their own ice supplies.

Increased demand produced experts and specialists in the ice harvesting field. Competition became keen with bids for contracts. The going wage was from $3 to $4 a day for a man. A team of horses and a man might get as high as $6 a day. Continuous motion and speed with coordination was the prime target of both workers and contractors. Misjudgment, mishandling or shirking in the ice house could result in serious injury with a steady stream of 200 pound ice cakes flowing into the structure for storage. The hauling route was usually a circuitous one. The aim was to keep moving, keep the ice coming steadily without having any pile-up or waiting sleighs either at the ice house or at the field. Any delays in the strenuous work meant inactivity resulting in the chilling of sweating men and horses.

Scrapers [to clear the field of snow], plowers [marking out the grid for the saws], scorers, sawers, and push men working the feeding canals all had their individual tricks to make work easier and look effortless. The loader could flip a 200 pound cake of ice into position on the sleigh with an artful twist of the wrist using the momentum of the ice to best advantage. Considering the thousands if tons of ice harbested in this area over the years few veterans recall any serious accidents. [In 1922 a newsclip stated that "Joe Truesdell is suffering from a serious injury to his left foot caused by a cake of ice sliding back down the runway and crushing the toes."]

An average ice crew, including teamsters, field men and ice house crew, would run about 30 men. As power driven saws, scrapers and scorers developed, so did the use of man and horse power diminish. Among the ice harvesting contractors remembered locally are Fred Van Brocklin, Elmer Van Brocklin, Louis Dobbins, Samuel B. Miller, and Thomas White. Fred Van Brocklin was the last to bend to the will of modern invention and lay down his saws and spuds. [In 1942 a clipping tells us that "Fred Van Brocklin and his crew of men have filled nearly all of the privately owned ice houses of this area, and expect to start filling the commercial ice houses owned by Ross Parker and C.R. Springer soon. Lawrence Schneider of Plessis reports that he has filled about one hundred ice storage houses in the village and on various lakes with good quality ice."

Local ice harvesting veterans interviewed describe this winter [1957] as being the nearest to beings a "real old fashioned winter" in some time. They remember hauling ice from 22 to 26 inches thick and taken from the main channel. They also recall the colorful picture of twelve teams and a sizeable column of men walking across the main channel to Alexandria Bay from the ice fields each evening.

However, when asked if whether they would like to go through it again, they indicate that the modern ice making machine is good enough for them. Neither has anyone made any claim so far this winter to being the first one to walk across the channel, although the channel has been apparently frozen over since early January.

� Nan Dixon, 2001