Harvesting Ice in 1944 in Windham NH

Harvesting ice on Castle Hill Road in Windham NH

I was sad to hear that one of Windham’s long time residents had passed away recently. Mary Glance was very kind to me, in providing photographs of her family’s farm on Castle Hill Road for my book. I thought with the sub-freezing temperatures it was appropriate to show a ice harvesting scene from the Markewich farm from 1944. The men sport a great L.L. Bean look. Ice harvesting was an important part of rural life. The farmers harvested ice to keep their milk cold until it could be delivered. Ice was harvested on Cobbett’s Pond and Canobie Lake and there were ice houses along the shore of both lakes. Even after the advent of electric refrigerators, many camps on the lakes and ponds still used ice. For those of you who are interested, they have an ice harvesting day, using the old ice harvesting machinery every winter on Squam Lake. https://www.squamlakes.org/news/annual-ice-harvest-squaw-cove Also found something else that was interesting. The public can rent canoes and kayaks from the Squam Lake Association Center, 534 US Route 3, Holderness, NH. …No not in the winter! Every year, there are fewer and fewer “old-timers” left… you know who you are