During the days before the modern day refrigerator and automatic ice makers, were the ice harvesters. Thousands of men were employed on the many lakes and rivers in Hammond and the Calumet Region. The ice harvesting season would last some two to four weeks, and would usually take place during the months of February and March. A cold and brutal winter would be a godsend for the ice harvesters, this would mean that there would be a thick and abundant ice.

At the begining of February 1913, a recent cold snap brought a generous harvest of ten inch thick ice in the Lake County ice cutting region. The G. H. Hammond Company reported having as many as 200 men at work on Wolf Lake, cutting and storing ice. The work at Wolf Lake had just gotten started and baring any abnormal warm weather an ample supply can be harvested without any problem.

The largest single deposit of ice put up in storage during the last week of February 1914 was some 65,000 cubic feet at the Swift and Company ice houses located at Wolf Lake. It was estimated that this amount of ice would be the equivalent of 5,074,400,000 ice cubes. Thus the harvest from Wolf Lake would be enough to supply ice for fifty-six drinks a year for every person living in the United States at the time

March of 1914 was a banner year for the ice companies. Since the 12th of February, some one half million tons of ice were cut and stored at each of the four Consumer Company ice houses located at Wolf Lake. On average 22,722.5 tons are stacked in each of the buildings.

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Source information from The Times Newspapers located at the Hammond Public Library.
Photographs from the Calumet Room at the Hammond Public Library.
Twentieth Century Time Capsule © 1999 HammondIndiana.com

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