Harvesting ice was an important industry in Norfolk before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, and frozen ponds were kept free of snow not for skating, but to keep the ice from getting soft before the harvest. The Norfolk Ice Company operated on Pond Hill Pond, just east of town. There the ice froze especially thick; it had to be at least 12 to 18 inches thick before it could be harvested.  The job was particularly labor-intensive. First, grooves were cut into the ice in a crisscross pattern. Next, a channel was cut from the grid to the shore with a five-foot ice saw that looked like a crosscut wood saw but with a handle on just one end. It had teeth that were about a foot long. Blocks of ice were cut on two sides, knocked loose with a pick, and floated down the channel to shore. Each block was about two by four feet and weighed between 250 and 300 pounds, depending upon the thickness of the ice. Once hoisted out, the ice was transported by horse-drawn sled to the ice house where the blocks were carefully laid in layers and covered with insulating saw dust to prevent melting. During a really cold year, ice could be harvested more than once. The introduction of the electric refrigerator in the 1920’s spelled the end of ice harvesting in Norfolk. So the next time you go skating on a frozen pond in town, remember the hard-working ice harvesters, men such as Ebenezer Burr who advertised “Tobey Pond Ice,” delivered door-to-door on hot summer days.

Ann Havemeyer

INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPH PROVIDED BY THE NORFOLK HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM