Cocolalla Ice Plant has rich history

(The following historical column written by my late dad, Bob Gunter, gives a clear picture of just how big the ice-harvesting operation was on Cocolalla Lake.)

By BOB GUNTER

Ice harvesting was nothing new to the people living along the streams and lakes of the Panhandle of North Idaho. Blocks of ice would be cut, hauled, and stored for later use by a family. City dwellers did not have the luxury of obtaining free ice and had to turn to the iceman to fill their iceboxes. The railroad also presented a need for ice to preserve fresh meats and vegetables for a cross country trip, and to preserve the fruit and berries being shipped to merchants on the East Coast.

Ice harvesting became big business and anyone looking for a place to get “blue ice” on a large commercial scale had to look no further than beautiful Lake Cocolalla. It had an inlet and outlet, its current and depth were suitable for ice harvesting, and a railroad that allowed the ice to be shipped year round was already in place.

The first icehouse on Lake Cocolalla was a small retail business built to supply ice for Spokane, Washington and delivery was made by horse and wagon. E.J. Bower purchased the company and built a larger plant, Diamond Ice and Fuel, in order to meet the demand for ice by the railroad. This second building was destroyed by fire and in about 1905, Mr. Bower built the largest, and the last, icehouse on the lake.

It was located on the main railroad line and provided ice for the refrigerator cars of the railroad and the Spokane Valley Ice and Fuel Company. There was also an ice plant in Blanchard run by George Becker but he later moved to the Cocolalla plant.

The rooms of the icehouse were huge. One of the men interviewed by Judy Pederson said, “You could go in there and holler and you would hear yourself 10 minutes later — quite an echo. The icehouse would hold about 15-20 refrigerator cars all at one time. The men would pull cars up on the spur track and fill them with ice. The refrigerated cars were at least 36 feet long and it would take 20 cars to match the length of the 720-foot-long ice house.”

The ice was moved by conveyor belts that went down into the lake at one end and up into the ice house at the other end. The belts were raised by turning steel windlasses. Blocks of ice would be cut out and put on the conveyor at the lake. The belt had slats on it where the ice would sit and it was two ice cakes wide. Each cake weighed from 150 to 200 pounds. One year, they had a very cold winter and they got 35 inches (depth) of ice. This was in March when they would harvest the ice and the cakes weighed 450 to 500 pounds each.

The ice business on the lake was no small operation. There were two bunkhouses that would accommodate 100 men each. There was a cookhouse, two cooks, and a huge eating house. There were 100 men working for the icehouse in the summer and 300 men working there in the winter. The icehouse had 60 horses and a huge barn that sat next to the plant. The horses were used to scrape snow off of the ice on the lake and several scrapers would run on the lake at the same time. There were two blacksmiths and they would put spiked shoes on the horses so they would have traction on the ice.

(I want to thank Judy Pederson for sharing with me her 1980 interviews with Lee Bates, and Bill and Frank Mase — Bob Gunter)