Did You Know Tuesday

Did you that after the Civil War, Maine was a leading exporter of ice? Ship captains used ice blocks as ballast and found that when they sailed to warm-weather places, the ice was popular and they were able to sell it. Soon, “Kennebec Ice” (taken from the Kennebec River) was the considered to the best ice available and people would pay top dollar for it.

The advent of refrigeration made the harvesting of ice obsolete, but prior to that happening, Maine ice was being exported to places like Cuba, India, China, and Europe. At the end of the 19th Century, the business of ice harvesting employed over 9,000 people.