Tobyhanna Millpond Ice Harvest

P and I went to watch an ice harvest at Tobyhanna Millpond. Before refrigerators people owned ice boxes which used a block of ice to preserve food. Similar to a milkman, there were iceman. Workers were paid 30 cents an hour out on the lake and 35 cents an hour to manhandle the 22" x 33" (.56 x .84 m) 300 pound (135 kilograms) ice cakes inside the ice house.

By the mid 1930's only railroad cars utilized natural ice block for cooling.