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    Harvesting Ice on the Dennys River

    Photograph
    A team of horses waits patiently while men load newly cut slabs of ice from a fresh water pond onto a bobsled, on the Lincoln Pond, above the mills on the Dennys River. Photograph courtesy of the Tides Institute in Eastport, Maine.

    A seasonal business was ice harvesting from Lincoln Pond in winter for summer use. The cutting time might be as early as December 20, as it was in 1906 when the ice was 13 inches thick, or as late as April 20, as in 1918, when 18 inch thick ice was being sawed by Pushee Brothers in Harrison Cove. Some years the ice was clear as glass, while at other times it was snow ice. In January 1912, the price charged for ice was 2 cents for light and 2 1/2 cents for heavy ice per cake. The cakes were usually cut 18" x 18" square varying in thickness form 12 to 20 inches. In 1897 the ice was being sawed by Peter Gardner and Isaac Sylvia. Most families had their own ice houses into which the cakes were stored, packed in sawdust. Those who needed ice for places of business, or to sell, hauled a larger quantity for storage. Until 1912 the Gardners had one ice house and stored between 150 and 286 cakes annually. In 1913 the ice house, which Frank West had had for the drug store, was moved to the Gardner property. The amount stored then increased to between 510 cakes that year and up to 650 in 1929. The draining of the pond in 1930 eliminated the source of ice supply, hastening the common use of electric refrigerators.

    Dennys River Historic PhotographsHallowell Collection at the Tides InstitutePhotos for Map

    Harvesting Ice on the Dennys River; A team of horses waits patiently while men load newly cut slabs of ice from the Lincoln's mill pond onto a bobsled, on the Dennys River. Photograph courtesy of the Tides Institute in Eastport, Maine.
    Lincoln Mills and Pond on the Dennys River in 1881.; View of the Lincoln Pond and businesses near the Upper Bridge over the Dennys River from the Colby Atlas map of 1881.