(Report by Jim)
I know this is off-season, but what this year is normal, right? I was reading an old Leelanau Enterprise from Feb 9, 1928 and it mentioned the annual “ice cuttng bee”. That reminded me of some old Erhardt Peters pics that I have from the Museum acquisition we helped with many years ago. Ice was carved out from near the mouth of the Carp River using large portable circular saws with an engine attached. The ice was then loaded on to pickup trucks and hauled down to various places like the Ice House in Fishtown. We all know Fishtown as a touristy destination, but back then, it was all work and little play. Back then, the ice harvest was a free source of refrigeration as large commercial units were still fairly expensive to buy and maintain.
The Leland Report 2021 Calendar is shipping now, get them while they last!
Very interesting. Love hearing about Leelanau in the past.
I remember in the 1940s, when we still had an ice-box instead of a refrigerator at our Glen Lake cottage. A man named Bramer (spelling?) used to bring us ice blocks, cut from Glen Lake and stored in a lot of saw dust in his place on M-22 north and east of Glen Arbor.
Love all the old pictures!!!