This story is stepping back in time. Ice boxes, Saw dust, Blocks of ice. Just a cool story!

 Mother Nature cooperates in time for ice harvest on Squam

http://www.newhampshirelakesandmountains.com/Articles-Plymouth-Record-Enterprise-c-2016-02-03-161539.113119-Mother-Nature-cooperates-in-time-for-ice-harvest-on-Squam.html#123

HOLDERNESS — Mother Nature finally cooperated last week when ice on Squaw Cove froze to the required 12-inch thickness so the staff of Rockywold-Deephaven Camps in Holderness and their team of volunteers could harvest the blocks of ice needed for the ice boxes in their rustic summer cabins and cottages.

Since the late 1880's, RDC staff members have diligently watched the ice depths on Squam Lake then set out with their customized saws, poles and ramps to cut the ice and store it in piles of sawdust to help preserve it.

Throughout the summer months, blocks of ice are transferred from the camp's two icehouses to ice boxes in the cabins at RDC where their guests enjoy old-world refrigeration during their stay.

The operation is one of the longest-standing "commercial" ice harvests in the world, RDC proclaims, and each year they are visited by numerous curious bystanders and media representatives as they head out on nearby Squaw Cove in Sandwich with their equipment.

This year, John Jurczynski of RDC said the harvest was a little late but they were pleased the ice finally reached a thickness where they could cut the required 12-inch-by-15-inch-by-19-inch blocks needed for the camp.

"It's all going very well. The average date for the harvest is mid-January but we've started as early as the week between Christmas and New Year's, and as late as February in the past, so this isn't too far off," Jurczynski said last week.