Back in the days before the modern convenience of refrigeration, this is how people keep their food (read: their beer) ice cold. Men would harvest blocks of ice from frozen lakes and ponds with a horse & plow and giant saw. Workers would then load the slabs of ice into a spring house or an icehouse to sell to people for use in their ice boxes at home.
The Library of Congress has a series of photos from the Detroit Publishing Co. (c.1900-1910), documenting a winter’s harvest and the journey of the ice straight from frozen lake to wooden storage shed. It is a pretty fantastic process to see and very fitting when you consider the cold weather that a lot of the U.S. has been having as of late. Also amazing to think about what we take for granted these days.