The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-01-30

Oe0>OSO~V~O~O
There are several sections in Mon
tana where an ice trust this summer
will have no terrors. even though 1t
were monopolistic, grinding and bind
ing in character This is because OF
the strange phenomena known as I'M
derground cold air blasts. which
have been found to 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 Thompson Falls, Sanders County,
has related his experience
Mr.. Maddox was escorted TO one
Of the stores of the city, taken down.
stairs and invited to stick his head
in hole in the wall. from which a
large plug had been taken. Outside
the Thermometer stood at 80 in the
shade, but the air which came out of
the hole in the wall made Senator
Maddox think he had been jabbed by
an ice chest. The air was painful
after coming from the heated upper
world.
In this respect Thompson might
quite appropriately be termed the
eighth wonder of the world, and the
way is not the way of the ice man.
In fact there are no ice men in Thomp-
son. They are not needed. When
ever a Thompson citizen desires a
refrigerator proper he simply digs a
hole in the ground and pipes cold
aid into his cooling chest instead of
filing it with ice. The air is dry
and clean and far ahead of ice.
There seems to be stratum OF
ice cold air below the city of Thomp-
son at a depth of from thirty to for
ty feet, and the residents have taken
advantage of the fact A cold air
we'll 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 ice. In the
basement of the store mentioned
above a hole about eighteen
inches in diameter is run to
cold air shaft, and when the
temperature OF the cellar becomes too
high the plug is removed from the
air pipe; if it were out all the time
the produce in the room would freeze.
The mouth of the same shaft opens
into what would be an icehouse In
another city, and current of the
ice cold air fills the place, keeping
the butter, eggs, meats and other
goods at a temperature just above
freezing point.
Theoprdinary air coming out Of an
airshaft in Thompson is, at the mouth
OF the shaft, IS degrees. but in some
instances rupe 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 Meagher Coun-
ty, in the Belt Mountains, a cold air
stratum was discovered quarter Of
a century ago, and in a peculiar man.
ner. James McCabe, one ii the
pioneer miners, planted field OF
potatoes one summer. He raised
good crop-in fact, larger than he
had eNpected-and found that he
would need a storehouse Tor them. so
he dug cellar in the mountainside
just back of his cabin. The cellar
was driven into the hill perhaps twen-
ty feet.
He harvested his crop and stored
the several tons of potatoes in the
cellar Double doors were arranged
over the opening. Imagine his sur
prise when, some time later, he open
ed the doors, to find all his "spuds'
frozen solid, with icicles hanging from
the roof of the cellar! Yet the Their
mometer had not reached the freezing
point at the cabin. not thirty feet
away. From that time on the cellar
was used as a refrigerator by Nc
Cabe anS all his neighbors in reach,
and the hottest days Of July and Au-
gust did not dispel the icicles hang
ing from the roof Stepping from the
,uter air few feet inside the cellar
was like receiving dash OF ice water !
u the face. The cellar is still there |,