Encyclopedia Dubuque
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CONLIN AND KEARNS: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:DSC01258.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Advertising poster for Conlin and Kearns. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding]]CONLIN AND KEARNS. The last of Dubuque's three major icehouses to continue river "ice harvests." [[ICE]] was cleared from the [[MISSISSIPPI RIVER]] to form channels to the company's icehouse off East 6th Street. Gas-powered saws were used to cut ice rafts, twenty feet long and approximately sixty-four inches wide. As many as eighty men using "spud bars," steel poles with flat edges, guided the rafts toward the ice house where the slabs were laid in any of the building's four rooms. | [[Image:DSC01258.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Advertising poster for Conlin and Kearns. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding]]CONLIN AND KEARNS. The last of Dubuque's three major icehouses to continue river "ice harvests." [[ICE]] was cleared from the [[MISSISSIPPI RIVER]] to form channels to the company's icehouse off East 6th Street. Gas-powered saws were used to cut ice rafts, twenty feet long and approximately sixty-four inches wide. As many as eighty men using "spud bars," steel poles with flat edges, guided the rafts toward the ice house where the slabs were laid in any of the building's four rooms. | ||
[[Image:conlinkearns.jpg|left|thumb| | [[Image:conlinkearns.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Ice pick. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding]] | ||
Sawdust, an insulation, was normally used to cover the top layer of ice in each room. The walls of the icehouse were also packed with sawdust to keep the ice from melting. Harvests made in late winter, sometimes when the ice was only six inches thick, had to last until the next winter. | |||
On May 28, 1911, the spectacular fire that destroyed Dubuque's [[STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY]] also destroyed the Conlin and Kearns' icehouse leaving a 12,000-ton charred wood-covered ice block to gradually melt. However, Conlin and Kearns continued to harvest river ice for another twenty years. | On May 28, 1911, the spectacular fire that destroyed Dubuque's [[STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY]] also destroyed the Conlin and Kearns' icehouse leaving a 12,000-ton charred wood-covered ice block to gradually melt. However, Conlin and Kearns continued to harvest river ice for another twenty years. | ||
Revision as of 00:58, 6 November 2010
CONLIN AND KEARNS. The last of Dubuque's three major icehouses to continue river "ice harvests." ICE was cleared from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER to form channels to the company's icehouse off East 6th Street. Gas-powered saws were used to cut ice rafts, twenty feet long and approximately sixty-four inches wide. As many as eighty men using "spud bars," steel poles with flat edges, guided the rafts toward the ice house where the slabs were laid in any of the building's four rooms.
Sawdust, an insulation, was normally used to cover the top layer of ice in each room. The walls of the icehouse were also packed with sawdust to keep the ice from melting. Harvests made in late winter, sometimes when the ice was only six inches thick, had to last until the next winter.
On May 28, 1911, the spectacular fire that destroyed Dubuque's STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY also destroyed the Conlin and Kearns' icehouse leaving a 12,000-ton charred wood-covered ice block to gradually melt. However, Conlin and Kearns continued to harvest river ice for another twenty years.
