New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-06-07
PITY THE POOR
MONTANA ICE MAN
NATURE HAS FORMED "A
TRUST.
Drill q Hole an the
Ground and Connect RefTger-.
atOrs 1cith FreeziHg dir.

! There are several sections in Montana where an
/ ice trust this summer will have terrors. even
though it were monopolistic. grinding and binding
/ in character This is because of the strange
| phenomena known as underground cold air blasts.
! which have been found 70 be available throughout
the year irrespective of the temperature on the
| surface State Senator Fletcher Maddox, who re-
/ Gently visited the more noted Of these at Thomp
son Falls Sanders County. has related his expert
ence-
Nh Maddox was escorted to one Of the stores
Of the city. taken downstairs and invited TO stick
his head in a hole in the wall. from which large
plug had baeu taken Outside the Thermometer
stood a 90 in the shade. but the air which came
out of the hole in The wall made Senator Maddox
think he had been tabbed by an ice chest. The
air was painful after coming from the heated upper
world
In this respect Thompson might quite appro-
priatey be termed the eighth wonder OF the world
and the way is not the way of the ice In
fact there are no ice men in Thompson. They are
not needed Whenever a Thompson citizen desires
a refrigerator proper he simply digs hole in the
ground and pipes cold air into his cooling chest
instead of filing it with ice. The air IS dry and
clean ana far ahead of ice
There seems 70 be a stratum OF ice cold air be-
low the city Of Thompson at n depth OF from
thirty to forty feet and the residents have taken
advantage Of the fact \ cold air well is almost
as much a necessity in Thompson as the kitchen
stove
A we'll IS sunk TO the depth found necessary for
the stratum and there is no further need OF Zee.
In the basement OF the store mentioned above
hole about eighteen inches In diameter is run to
q cold air shaft. and when the temperature OF the
cellar becomes TOO high the ping is removed from
the air pipe II IL We're our all the time the
produce In the room would freeze. The mouth OF
the sane shaft opens into what would be tee
house IN another CITY and a current Of the ice
cold air fills the place. keeping the butter. eggs.
meats and other goods al temperature just above
freezing point
The ordinary air coming out OF airshaft in
Thomson is az the mouth Of the shaft So de-
grees. but in some Instances runs even lower.
There are other localities in Montana where the
cold air stratum may be found. but not another
where an entire city takes advantage OF the fact
and pipes cold air about as other cities pipe gas
and water
In Whites Gulch. one of the early gold mining
camps of Neagher County. in the Belt Mountains.
a cold air stratum was discovered quarter OF
century ago. and in peculiar manner James Nc
Cahe. one OF the pioneer miners. planted field OF
potatoes one summer. He raised good crop-ia
fact. larger than he had expected-and found that
he would need storehouse for them 50 he dug a
cellar in the mountainside just back OF his cabin
The cellar driven into the hill perhaps twenty
feet.
He harvested his crop and stored the several
tons OF potatoes in the cellar Double doors were
arranged over the opening Imagine his SURPRISE
when some time later he opened the doors. 70 find
all his .spuds' frozen solid. with icicles hanging
from the roof of the cellar, Yet the thermometer
had not reached the freezing point at the cabin.
not thirty feet away From that time on the cell
lar was used refrigerator by McCabe and all
his refghbors in reach. and the hottest days OF
TuIv and August did not dspel the icicles hanging
from the roof. Stepping from the outer air a few
feet inside the cellar was ike receiving cash ot
ice water in the face. The cellar is still there.
Is always shown 70 visitors TO that section
Another natural refrigerator in Montana is to bs
found in Upper New York Ciulch, another Old min
ing camp in the Belt range. Cascade County. A
shaft had been raised perhaps thirty feet from a
bedrock drain and used sOr years
frigerator y carcass Of beef could kept therein
even during the hottest OF summer months. The
shaft finally filed with ice within few feet OF
the surface. and is still used a never-smpty ice
chest by the few residents OF that nsIghborhood