Settles' Icehouse
You are actually standing in front of a small, above ground wooden building known as The Wash House. It is at the site of the original location of the Settles' Icehouse.
The current Wash House structure that sits above it is not original to this property; it was moved to this site and rebuilt above the Icehouse sometime in the 1940's. A structure with a fireplace (traditionally used here for heating up the irons) would not normally have been atop an ice cellar for obvious reasons. The original Icehouse (ice cellar) is situated beneath the ground. While the ice trade didn't become a widely spread nor easily accessible industry until the 19th century, prior to that the more remote estates and farms used the ponds on their own property to supply their ice. When the ice was thick enough in the winter, the ice would be cut from the ponds in large blocks and transported up to the ice cellar by horse-pulled wagons
Once at the icehouse, the large blocks of ice would be either lowered or slid down into the cellar and stacked all the way up to the ceiling. The ice was kept further insulated by using sawdust to cover the blocks. As the ice was brought up for use, the sawdust would quickly start to come off as the ice started to melt and the rest could be rinsed off with water before using. By keeping the ice mostly below ground in the cool dark surrounded by stone and where the temperature remains a constant of about 53-54 degrees, a good portion of the ice at the Settles could often last until August. They used their ice for various things, the most important was for keeping food fresh there in the icehouse, additional uses were for chilling drinks for their guests, and occasionally making ice cream for some of the luckier guests.
*** PLEASE NOTE *** Rangers have informed me that there is at least one Eastern Ratsnake (see related webpage above) every year that has young hatchlings that find their way to GZ and tend to hang out there for a while before maturing and moving on to a more suitable habitat. Eggs are laid during the month of July with ~60 days incubation period; therefore, eggs hatch anywhere during the month of August-September. Please be aware that it is possible to encounter either an adult Eastern Ratsnake or hatchlings of same during the mid-late summer months. This is a nonvenomous snake! However, as with all wildlife it needs to be treated with respect and, if encountered, given appropriate space. The CO is in constant contact with the Park Rangers and will know if the cache needs to be temporarily disabled this summer. Otherwise, the location of GZ itself is never closed to the public during Park hours for this issue, so feel free to proceed on your own. Thank you.
This cache has been approved by the Virginia State Parks and
was placed with the permission of Sky Meadows State Park.
