For decades before World War I, much of the ice used in iceboxes was harvested from Wisconsin Lakes. The ice was stored in icehouses until it was shipped via rail to Chicago and then across the nation, in particular the American Southwest such as Texas and Arizona.
The ice industry in Wisconsin was possible due to geography along with industrial and cultural developments. Obviously, Wisconsin’s cold climate and abundance of lakes provided an ample source of clear, hard ice. Communities with access to rail and freshwater helped fill the increasing demand for ice.
Small ice harvesting existed to meet demand locally, but as rising demand for chilled beer and meat led to growth of the brewing and meatpacking industries in Milwaukee, Chicago and elsewhere, new demand was created for year-round ice. Soon, ice became a commodity crop like corn and wheat.
When the United States entered World War I, German immigrants transformed Wisconsin’s brewing industry with lager beer which required colder temperature during brewing and storing. Thanks in part to the regions ability to produce and harvest ice Wisconsin emerged as one of the biggest brewing centers in the nation. During the 1880s, Milwaukee’s breweries used more than 335,000 tons of ice annually.
Wisconsin was seen as a dependable source of high-quality ice and huge amounts of ice left Wisconsin cities via railcars. It is estimated that 100,000 tons of ice would be harvested from Madison area lakes in the winter of 1901, some of it for the local market, but most for out of state use. In order to aid in the providing clean harvested ice a local inventor created a machine to cut the weeds back in the fall so they wouldn’t be in the winter ice.
Hockney Weed Cutter
During this time industrial development and population growth was the beginning of the end for some harvesting operations, especially those in larger cities. Waters became polluted and the Chicago Board of Health closed the domestic market to ice from Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. By 1911, Lake Monona was so polluted that Wisconsin Legislature outlawed ice harvesting on the lake.
Refrigeration technology began to replace natural ice harvesting in the 1910s and by the end of World War I, most large ice harvesting firms had left Wisconsin. While mass ice harvesting made be history, some Amish communities still rely on ice harvesting while others use ice delivery services.