"If you don't use sawdust, the blocks will melt a little bit and then freeze together and you'll have one huge block," Luchsinger said. A well-packed ice shed will keep ice through the summer and fall.
Ice Industry
In the early 1900s, ice that was packed tightly in an ice shed would last all spring, summer, and fall, ensuring that everyone with an icebox had a steady supply of the natural refrigerant.
"When I was a kid, we had a sign that told the ice man just the size piece we wanted, and he would cut the piece we needed and bring it around back and put it in the refrigerator for us," Preston, the Tully historian, said.
The days of this ritual and of Tully's ice industry were numbered once General Electric introduced the electric refrigerator in 1929. But a group of local dairy farmers continued to harvest ice to keep their milk cool up until 1951, Luchsinger noted.
"There's a couple of old fellows who come down to the harvest and say, 'I remember when … .' I really enjoy that," Luchsinger said.
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