I remember my Grandmother telling me A story of when my Grandfather would collect ice in the north part of Minnesota in the winter.They would go out onto the lakes in the dead of winter with saws and cut blocks of ice from the frozen lakes.They would then take the ice and store it in A barn and cover it with straw to insulate it so it wouldn't melt once it warmed up.

noelani --

The writers of those shows did OK.

People "living in the wilderness" didn't rely on the ice man regularly bringing them blocks of ice for their iceboxes, they relied on themselves.

In deep winter, rural people sawed large blocks of ice from frozen northern lakes, streams and rivers, and stowed them away in their own private ice-houses in anticipation of summer heat. A block of ice from the ice-house would last a week or ten days in the kitchen icebox.

Even today, people who live far off the grid (and thus have no access to electricity) continue this practice, especially in remote areas of northern states like Minnesota, Montana and Maine.

I just love pictures like this, showing a formerly common occurrence that most people forget about. I've seen movies and TV shows that depicted people living in the wilderness, who are using ice boxes. I guess the writers of those shows didn't realize that, in order to keep anything cool, it had to have blocks of ice in it, that were replaced regularly. I'm sure that areas 1,000 miles west were not part of this guy's route!