Ice Harvesting Plow

by Marcus Jeffrey

While chipping the ice away from my windshield yesterday morning, I was reminded of this region’s ice-harvesting industry. Blocks of ice would be carved from the lakes, and placed in ice-boxes (think “wooden fridge”) to keep food fresh.

Scoring the ice with a horse-drawn plow was one of the first stages in the ice-cutting process. In the first image, two men, one guiding the horse, the other guiding the plow, mark out the ice on Shoal Lake. The second image shows just such a plow from the Museum’s collection.