Cool! GMG reader shares Cape Pond Ice harvesting history in Alton, New Hampshire – Mt. Major – Lake Winnipesaukee 🧊☃️❄️ #GloucesterMA

Thank you to GMG reader, Carolyn Rosenfeld, for sharing a Gloucester history message that was featured by Alton Historical Society!

SELLING COLD

Cape Pond Ice headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts, established a branch in Alton, New Hampshire, to guarantee demands for ice.

Carolyn writes:

“AMAZING! MY MOTHER AND HER ENTIRE FAMILY WERE  FROM WEST ALTON, BUT UP ON THE MOUNTAIN. That’s why I belong to this (Alton Historical Society) group. It’s like I’ve gone back in time. Finding that interconnection is a little eerie. I’m in NH today to give a beautiful portrait of her, taken in 1912 when she was  4 years old, to one of my daughters. And of course it was taken at their farm on Alton Mountain. Anyway, I love a good coincidental jolt in the AM with my coffee.”

Carolyn

“Alton Historical Society, Alton, New Hampshire – This is the Cape Pond Ice Co. of Gloucester, MA ice house at Mt. Major in West Alton. The ice was shipped by train along the Lake Shore Line to Gloucester for use on the fishing boats.” | Facebook

Alton Historical Society Facebook post 2021 January 20

Mt. Major is a state park– another wonderful activity to check out at Lake Winnipesaukee

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See Cape Pond Ice – and Cape Ann Museum and Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library– for more information. (I’ll add more photos here.)

Fun read – 2019 article here featuring a “keeping the ice harvesting tradition alive” attraction is available on Squam Lake in Holderness, NH.