May 2, 2023 – Theme Week Day 2

We’re continuing our theme week on Odd Jobs that Don’t Exist Anymore. Today we’re talking about ice cutters. We take ice for granted today – we can just open up the freezer and grab the ice cube tray, or use ice from the ice maker. But there was a time when cooling your beverage wasn’t so easy. Ice had to be harvested from frozen lakes and rivers by ice cutters. The ice had to be at least 18 inches thick to be harvested, thick enough to support the weight of the workers and the horses that carted it back to the ice house. The ice would be cut with either a handsaw or powered saw blade, and depending on the thickness, 1,000 tons of ice could be harvested from an acre of surface water. At its peak at the end of the 19th century, the ice industry employed around 90,000 people. Eventually though, mechanical refrigeration displaced it. But the ice trade did revolutionize the U.S. meat, fruit, and vegetable industries and allowed for significant growth in the fishing industry. Thanks to the growing ice trade, ice cream became more widely available and consumed in greater quantities. Today, little remains of the ice trade, although it is occasionally harvested for ice carving and ice festivals. Learn more here.