|
Ice
House History |
|
|
The ClubHouse Hotel Ice House Restaurant
is located on the site of the former
Fargo - Detroit Ice Company. It is this
historical company that gives it's name
to our restaurant and bar.
History of the Ice House
The Fargo - Detroit Ice Company was
founded in 1888 by John K. West. The
Fargo - Detroit Ice Company's first
activities were principally to harvest
natural ice from Detroit Lake and
establish a city ice route.
The removal of ice from Detroit Lake was
originally done with the help of horses.
At one time, a total of sixteen teams of
horses and mules were used for scraping
the ice. In 1898 power was obtained from
a huge threshing engine which operated
an endless chain over and incline. The
process for ice removal was quite
complex. First, large fields of ice were
cleared with a snow scraper, then a plow
cut the blocks to an exact size, these
were floated to the incline, where there
was an elevated track on which they
traveled.
Harvesting of the ice was done by crews
scraping the harvest area before
cutting. Saw crews moved rapidly across
the ice with motor driven pond saws. The
ice was cut into cakes of 22 x 32
inches, with a thickness of 16 to 19
inches. One cake of ice weighed
approximately 414 pounds. The ice was
first hand cut half way through, then
the pond saw completed the cut down to
the water. The tramway carried the ice
cakes up from the small channel. Here
men with pike poles and lake bars pushed
the ice cakes into place. Floats were
cut into ribbons, two cakes wide and 10
long, men with needle bars cut them into
individual cakes and then they went into
the box cars. The cripples were allowed
to pass by and only the perfect cakes
were loaded. Cripple cakes were off
sized cakes which were carried away on
the tramway and thrown off. The ice
glistened in the afternoon sun, this
pile would continue to grow in size
until it presented an unusual sight for
motorists on highway 10. By the time the
ice harvest was over, both sides of
highway 10 were piled high with giant
ice cubes.
The ice field was approximately 1/2 mile
by 1/5 mile. Workers actually started in
the summer with crews cutting weeds to
keep this area clean. In the winter when
snow fell, plows moved in on the site
and kept it scraped off to promote fast
forming ice. When the ice reached 16 -
19 inches in all areas of the field, the
ice harvest began. The "bar line" and
"saw line" were corked, (packing the saw
lines with sawdust) to keep the lines
open, preventing water from getting in
and freezing the saw lines. To open the
channel, the first few cakes were
"drowned", by pushing them back under
the ice, then the next cakes could be
moved up the chutes. The cakes were
moved first by a metal brush which
scraped them clean.
The ice business expanded over the years
to shipping ice outside Detroit Lakes to
various commercial customers. In 1902
the company was incorporated. In 1904,
the ice house was being filled at the
rate of over 3 tons per minute and 182
tons per hour. One thousand tons was
considered a good days work. During a
season, summer employed 20 - 25 people,
once December and January arrived
another 55 - 65 people were employed.
Ice harvested during a busy season
reached 150,000 to 200,000 tons, of this
10,000 to 12,000 were stored here.
Ice harvested was shipped to Idaho,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, South
Dakota and Washington. it was learned
that some of the ice found its way into
the deep south, touching the states of
Texas and Florida. At one time, some
4000 box cars with about 150,000 tons of
ice were shipped to all points from
Minnesota to the state of Washington.
In 1936, a fire swept through the
warehouse of the Fargo - Detroit Ice
Company and totally destroyed the big
structure with a loss estimated at
$8,500. In May 1936, a new structure was
built. In 1970, the last ice harvesting
operation was held on Detroit Lake.
Refrigerators were found to make better
ice and Burlington Northern decided they
no longer required the use of lake ice. |
| |
|
|
Download Our Menu!
Lunch Menu PDF
Dinner Menu PDF
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
Karaoke Club
Friday & Saturday
at 9:00pm
The Ice House transforms
into the area hottest
Karaoke Club |
| |
|
Ice House
History |
| |
|
Hours |
|
In-Season
(Mid June to Mid August)
Monday - Saturday
6:30am - 10:00pm
Sunday
6:30am - 9:00pm
Off Season
Monday - Saturday
6:30am - 2:00pm
3:00pm - 10:00pm
Sunday
6:30am - 2:00pm
3:00pm - 9:00pm
Liquor Service
Monday - Saturday
8:00am - 1:00am
Sunday
10:00am - 1:00am
Happy Hour
Monday - Friday
4:30pm - 7:00pm
Wednesday's
(summer months only)
Paul Berget
One man Rockin' Roll Band |
| |
|
|
|
|
