Stories

Hunter legacy captured in ice

By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:57 AM EST

NILES - Could you imagine living without a refrigerator or a freezer? What about ice cubes?

As unbelievable as it may seem, this was the case just 100 years ago, when putting small cubes of ice in a beverage was, for the most part, unheard of.

Instead of fancy stainless steel refrigerators with water and ice machines and a built in television, people relied on wooden iceboxes and hand-delivered ice to keep their food items cool.

In the 1800s, the ice business was nowhere near what it is today. Ice actually came from lakes. Men would work from sun up to sun down during the winter months to physically cut blocks of ice for distribution.

Residents would place ice orders outside of their homes, where workers would pick up and drop off their orders.

This weekend, Niles will celebrate its fourth annual Hunter Ice Festival. Ice carvers will come from all over the United States to show off their best carving skills, ice cream made with an old-fashioned recipe will be served and most importantly, people will hit the streets of downtown Niles for a fun-filled weekend.

Many enjoy what the Hunter Ice Festival has to offer, but some may not even know why it originated.

According to Lisa Croteau, Program Manager for Niles DDA Main Street, the festival started after several comments that an ice festival would be a fun event for Niles.

"Mayor McCauslin is good friends with Bill Thistlethwaite. Bill's son, Andy is a chef, and ice carver. After we did the streetscape, Mayor was talking with Gloria Cooper and suggested that it would be fun if Niles had an ice festival," Croteau explained.

After a meeting with Andy to discuss the Ice Festival, it was clear this would be something special to offer the community.

"Needless to say, the ultimate festival was a bit pricey and with no history or money budgeted for it, we needed help to start it," Croteau said.

That's where the Hunters came into the picture comes in. Croteau said that plenty of people in Niles knew of the Hunter Foundation, but very few knew the history.

About the Hunter Family

Henry and Lemont Hunter arrived in Niles in 1898 in hopes of creating an ice harvesting business on Barron Lake. The two brothers had previously been involved in the ice business in both Wisconsin and Illinois and decided to venture out on their own.

The two purchased 22 acres on Barron Lake and established the first industry in Howard Township. The actual icehouse was a very large building, featuring four stories, large rooms and continuous conveyor belts, which pulled the ice from the lake. Some of the pieces of the original belt were found by a diver in Barron Lake. The pieces were turned over to the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College.

According to a statement posted in the Niles District Library's current display of the Hunter business, the best way to visually understand the size of the icehouse is to think of the size of the library. The entire library was the size of just one room of the icehouse.

The first crop of ice was created the same year Henry and Lemont moved to Niles and for the following 25 years, Hunter Ice was used not only for local distribution, but by the Michigan Central Railroad as well. The business supplied the railroad's refrigerated cars with ice, which were used for transporting fruit in the summer. Ice was shipped to almost every town on the main line of the Michigan Central between Kalamazoo and Michigan City.

Hunter Ice became popular because of its purity, as Barron Lake was spring fed and free from impurities.

After Henry passed away in 1903, Lemont was left to run the business, with the help of Henry's son, Edward.

Quality ice was not the only aspect of the business. In 1914, Lemont formed the Hunter Ice and Ice Cream Co., which became popular for its delicious ice cream. Butter and artificial ice were also manufactured.

For this reason, the Hunter Ice Festival provides an ice cream stand with an original recipe of the Hunter Ice Cream, a favorite to all festival-goers, Croteau said.

The business was sold in 1924 to Consumer Ice Co., of Jackson.

Though the two brothers died long ago, their legacy continues to live on. Edward and Irma, the children of Henry and Martha, never married or had children of their own, leaving behind a large estate. According to an article done by the Daily Star in the 1980s, the Hunter family was very generous, often giving to local organizations. Because there was no one to leave their wealth, a foundation was created at the time of the death of the last family member, thus forming the Hunter Foundation, which is still very active to this day.

Formed in 1968, the Hunter Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to advancing community, commercial and industrial development in the Niles area.

The foundation has been responsible for helping local schools, the Niles District Library, businesses and now, the Hunter Ice Festival.

And the Festival

is born

"With a little research, we found that ice festivals in other communities are huge economic engines. They bring in tens of thousands of dollars to various communities. We approached the foundation and asked if they would help us get the festival started, since we felt sure it would fall within the boundaries of their economic development goals," Croteau said.

Seven weeks after approaching the board in 2004, the first Hunter Ice Festival was born. "That first year we could document more that $40,000 dollars spent in the downtown district that would not have been spent here otherwise. Last year, that figure was over $60,000," Croteau said.

She added that the Main Street method of revitalization is all about celebrating community history.

Croteau said it was a natural fit with the Niles DDA Main Street mission - The purpose of Niles Main Street is to enhance our community identity and heritage, foster a center of activity and ensure economic stability for the heart of downtown Niles through broad based community support.

A display of original items is on hand this weekend at the library. Lee W. Dodd, of Niles, donated several items to the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College, which includes original tools, documents, business records and original pictures of men working at the icehouse.

"The display's are back this year. We had them here for the first two festivals and last year I wanted to take another direction. But after receiving a number of demands for the displays to be back, they are here again," Conrad Rader, adult services librarian, said.

The library will also be featuring two films, one about ice extraction and one about the building of the ice hotel.

"Not only do we get a great community festival, but we get to tell a piece of Niles' history and make money for our businesses. It doesn't get much better than that," Croteau added.

The ice festival will kick off on Friday at 6 p.m. with the Fire & Ice performance.

A list of scheduled events will be available in Friday and Saturday's Daily Star.

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