Dylan Thuras has a confession for you. He is walking through his kitchen, holding a glass, about to press a lever on his fridge and watch ice fall out. He calls it one of the most luxurious things in the world. And he is right.
But 100 years ago, getting ice was not a luxury. It was a job for dozens of people, out on a frozen pond, wielding saws and pickaxes, cutting massive blocks of ice that would be stored, stacked and shipped across the globe. That was the way ice got into people’s homes and into their cups.
Thuras, host of the podcast Atlas Obscura, has gone to Maine to see that old process up close. The episode is called “Podcast: The Thompson Ice House,” and it takes him about 90 minutes north from Portland to a small town in South Bristol, Maine, where Thompson’s Ice House is one of the only places on the p where people still gather every winter to do this.
The Lever That Changed Everything
Thuras starts by talking about how he now takes the lever for granted. He walks up to his fridge, presses it, and ice drops into his glass. He can add water. It is simple, modern and, as he puts it, one of the most luxurious things in the world.
But the podcast is not about the lever. It is about what came before it. The episode is a celebration of strange, incredible and wondrous places, and this one involves ice harvested the old-fashioned way.
“It is just like a giant ice pick.”
That is how Thuras describes the pickaxe that does the cutting. The podcast plays the sound of the blade swinging through the ice, the weight of the work, the cold, the effort of dozens of people doing the same thing for generations.
A Mainery Mainer’s Memory
Ken Lincoln is the local guide. He has lived in Maine his whole life, and Thuras says he may be the most Mainery Mainer he has ever met. Lincoln was on that very ice as a kid.
“What makes me feel like a kid when I’m out there? I mean actually just being on the ice, pushing the blocks and, you know, even watching the children there, you almost go back to that time,” Lincoln says.
A Day of Hard Work
Thuras joined in on the fun and the work. He says it is a lot of hard work. The episode captures the noise of the process, the swing of the pickaxe, the weight of the blocks as they are pushed and stacked.
The ice is cut into massive blocks. Those blocks are then stored and stacked, ready to be shipped across the globe.
- The ice is cut into massive blocks
- Those blocks are stored and stacked
- The blocks are then shipped across the globe
The podcast describes the process as something that would be stored and stacked and shipped across the globe to get into people’s homes and into their cups.
The work is physical. It is cold. It is the kind of labor that modern refrigeration has made obsolete. But the Thompson Ice House still does it the old way, and Thuras shows up to document it.
Why Maine Still Does This
Thompson’s Ice House is a small place in a small town. It is a working site where people still gather every winter to take part in this particular antiquated process.
Thuras does not treat the ice harvest as a quaint curiosity. He treats it as a wondrous place, part of the Atlas Obscura celebration of strange and incredible things. He joins in the work, he listens to Lincoln’s stories, and he walks on the ice himself.
The Children on the Ice
Lincoln’s memory includes the children he watched as a boy. He says watching them there almost takes him back to that time.
Where to Find the Episode
The episode is part of the Atlas Obscura podcast. Thuras says it after the break, promising “Atlas Obscura on ice … after this.” The episode itself is titled “Podcast: The Thompson Ice House.”
For listeners who want to hear the sound of pickaxes swinging and ice being cut, the podcast is the place to go. Thuras’s narration walks listeners through the process, from the frozen pond to the stacked ice house, with Lincoln’s memories adding a human dimension to the work.
Source material: “Podcast: The Thompson Ice House,” Atlas Obscura.
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