The Iceman - Cocolalla Idaho
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.
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