BRESAYLOR — Ice houses were used by the Hudson’s Bay Company to keep buffalo meat cool during the summer months. The Bresaylor settlers also used ice houses.
Late winter when the ice was thickest, the settlers would go down to the river with a sleigh pulled by a team of horses. The sleigh would be pulled onto the ice-covered river, then the horses would be unhooked and tied in the shelter of the bush. Using an ice chisel (a sharp-edged steel tip lashed onto a wood shaft about four feet in length) and an axe, they would cut a round hole in the ice. Then using a saw that had a handle at one end, they would start cutting out a square block of ice usually about one and a half feet square. A set of ice tongs was used to pull the block of ice out of the water and load it onto the sleigh. This continued until the sleigh was fully loaded.
Pulling and cutting the ice blocks was a dangerous task, as there was always the danger of slipping into the water. One case in Battleford that was said to happen was that a man slipped into the river and his fellow workers were unable to grab him before the current took him under the ice. It just so happened that another crew was harvesting ice a little distance downstream. The man popped up in their hole and they managed to pull him out to safety.
Once loaded, the ice blocks were hauled to an ice house which consisted of a square hole in the ground with a roof over it and a door on the side. The cubes of ice were put in the building and then covered with a layer of sawdust. The ice would last all summer and things that needed to be kept cool or frozen would be stored in the building with ice.
Settlers who could afford it and preferred not to keep running out to the ice house, had an ice box in their home. The ice box, a forerunner of the refrigerator, consisted of a box with a door on top into which a block of ice was placed. Another door on the front opened to a compartment where milk, cheese and other items were stored. As the ice slowly melted, the water would run along the sides of the compartment keeping it cool. Melting water collected at the bottom in a tray which could be pulled out and drained.
The Bresaylor museum has ice tongs, an ice saw and an ice box on display.
The Bresaylor Heritage Museum is open again for the summer by appointment only from June 30 to August 31. Please phone Enola at 306-893-8002 or Bob at 306-895-2075 to arrange a guided tour by one of our volunteer staff. Check out the Bresaylor Heritage Museum Facebook page for more information.
