The ice is back. After a year off due to dangerously thin ice, the Millers Mills Grange is gearing up for its annual Old Fashioned Ice Harvest. Scheduled for Sunday, February 11, 2007, the harvesting begins at 11 AM and ends when the ice house is full. The thicker the ice the faster it fills, come early!

The ice harvest has a long history. From the time of Millers Mills founder Andrew Miller two hundred years ago, residents filled ice houses with pond ice to preserve food during the hot summers and later keep their milk cool. After electricity came in 1941, the ice harvests continued to freeze ice cream for the summer socials. One day Charles Kuralt spotted a picture on the UP wire, made a phone call and the rest is history so to speak. After his visit in 1974, the ice harvest and the ice cream socials blossomed into a nationally known community effort to preserve and share a small part of rural American Heritage.

Every attempt is made to preserve the authenticity of an old-fashioned ice harvest. Old tools such as saws, pike poles and ice tongs are used to cut, separate and move the blocks of ice. The ice is loaded on sleighs and hauled to the ice house by magnificent teams of draft horses supplied by Wendall Saunders and members of the Eastern Regional Draft Horse Association. Packed in sawdust and snow, the ice blocks last well into summer. The only modern concession is the gas powered scoring machine. Scoring is done on Saturday to insure that blocks are relatively uniform in size and easier to cut.

This past summer, Millers Mill Grange members, led by Chuck Guske, a local contractor and fellow grange member, build a new ice house which will be dedicated with the first load of ice.

Visitors to the ice harvest are invited to try their hand at cutting ice and are able to ride on the sleighs as they come back from the ice house to the pond. The Grange, which is across the road from the pond, offers homemade soup, hot dogs, doughnuts and hot chocolate to warm the spectators.

Take a step back in time.

David Huxtable, Ice Harvest Chairman 315/822-5253
Judy King, Grange Master 315/822-3003
Kathy Huxtable, Publicity 315/822-6860