MGA9-Lake Erie-Winter Harvest Traditional Geocache

This cache is placed as part of the 2009 Geocaching Adventure, a geocaching game placed by MiGO members as a tribute to the Metroparks Geocaching Adventure series.

In order to complete the 2009 Geocaching Adventure, you will need to find the 11 caches hidden in the different Metroparks. For links to all of the cache web pages Click Here. Inside the cover of each Geocache you will find two words. These are to be placed on the appropriate spaces of a crossword puzzle found on the Geocaching Adventure 2009 Brochure found here.  We will be holding a geocachers picnic at Indian Springs Metropark on September 12th.  Watch the Geocaching Adventure 2009 Web site for more details.

The Ice Man cometh...

Before the introduction of mechanical refrigeration into homes and businesses, people relied on natural ice to preserve their perishable food. The visits from the ice man and his wagon were as much of a social institution as visits from the milk man.

Starting around mid-December, when the ice had reached the proper thickness of 6-12 inches, locals headed out onto the frozen waters of the Detroit and Huron Rivers and Lake Erie to begin the ice harvest.

Crews of men wearing 'ice creepers' would head out with teams of horses and their tools of the trade: ice plows, saws, tongs and pike poles. The ice blocks would be cut and packed into layers of sawdust to be transported to insulated ice houses. The ice harvest would continue for the better part of a week and the harvested ice would remain intact well into summer.

Farmers and business had their own ice houses to store their ice for use through the summer months and the townspeople relied on the regular deliveries of the ice man. The ice man, with his big leather apron and a leather cover on this shoulder, delivered big blocks of ice using a huge pair of tongs from a straw-filled wooden wagon. Customers would pay the ice man with a coupon from their pre-paid ice coupon booklet and put the ice in their icebox to keep their food from spoiling.

The advent of refrigeration in homes and businesses in the 1930s and the increasing pollution of our waters brought about a decline in harvested ice and the familiar visits from the ice man. By the late 1960s the iceman and his ice wagon were virtually gone.

This is only a small piece of the history surrounding the Detroit River and Lake Erie. To learn more interesting history please visit the Marshlands Museum and Nature Center at Lake Erie Metropark. They are open daily from 10am - 5pm during the summer and from 1-5pm weekdays and 10am-5pm weekends during the school year.

The cache is located near the boat launch area of the park close to a mown, grassy area. There should be little bushwhacking or climbing necessary by following the grass to a small deer trail that will lead you to the cache area.