Cocolalla Ice Plant workers had harvesting down to a science

(I want to thank Judy Pederson for having the foresight to interview many of the early residents of the Cocolalla area. Nothing is left along the shore line of Lake Cocolalla that would indicate that years ago there existed an enterprise that was one of the two largest employers in the area — the other being Humbird Mill. 

Without the memories Judy recorded from people like Lee Bates, and Bill and Frank Mase, our knowledge of the size and scope of the business that sat on the south end of Lake Cocolalla would be scant. I also want to thank my friend, Diana, for the hours she spent in researching the ice business and for putting me in touch with Judy. I especially appreciate the seven CDs she gave me of Judy’s interviews.)

Ice harvesting was a much more complex operation than most people realize. The commercial plants had to have in its employ critical workers who tested the ice, marked potential dangerous areas, and were capable of laying out the fields for ice cutting. All this, plus other duties, had to be done on a daily basis.

In Judy’s 1980 interviews, the three men mentioned above shared how the ice of Cocolalla was cut.

“One fellow would make a straight line with a marker. The first cut would be one inch deep and each time the blades of the ice plow cut the ice; it would be a couple of inches deeper. Then the men would cut the blocks out with ice saws following the ice plow cuts. A team of horses would be on each side of the saw to pull it through the ice.

“These first chunks of ice would be about 100 square, later to be cut down into smaller cakes. The horses would pull the big section of ice over to the water box where a fellow was waiting with a needle bar. He’d stand over the top of the ice with the needle bar and hit right where the cuts, which were about six inches deep, had been made. If he hit it right a cake would pop out. These cakes would be skidded up the ramp to where the train cars were waiting. This area was called the loading chain and men would load the cars three tiers high. The engine would pull the cars over to the main line and pick up empty cars all in a few minutes. The men would load the ice house after all the cars were filled.”

An article entitled, “Big Ice Harvest on Cocolalla Lake,” appeared in the Sandpoint Daily Bulletin (Jan. 20, 1922) gives a picture of the operation and its importance locally and nationally:

“The big ice harvest is on at full blast at Cocolalla Lake, where the finest ice of recent years is being stored away that the passengers of the Northern Pacific may have pure ice water next summer as they journey across the Rockies and over the Cascades and that the fruit which goes from the northwestern points to the eastern markets may also be kept from perishing at berry and fruit times next season.”

“The ice is 14 inches of the finest ‘blue,’ which means that there is little if any snow on its surface.”

“Some idea of the magnitude of the Cocolalla Ice Company’s operations at Cocolalla Lake may be gleaned from the statement that the ice houses themselves have a capacity for 22,000 tons and that 60,000 tons will be loaded straight to the Northern Pacific cars for shipment to the railroad’s ice stations at Yakima, Ellensburg, Toppenish, Walla Walla, Parkwater, Pasco and Spokane.”

“One hundred and ten cars are being loaded daily, or 3,500 tons; while 2,500 tons are being daily shipped up the loading chains into the mammoth icehouse. The cars are loaded 16 cars at a time, eight being spotted on each side of the loading chain. The operations employ 170 men. The work of putting up the mammoth ice harvest is being personally superintended by E.J. Bower, the principal stockholder in the Cocolalla Ice Company, who for many years has conducted the Cocolalla Plant.”

1929 saw the last of the big plant on the lake. It was torn down and the sawdust used for ice storage found its way to the homes of local farmers to be used to preserve their ice. Rumor has it that there are two boxcars still in the lake from the days the icehouse was in operation.