This is a structure that was essential to living in the early 1900's in NW Montana. Built in 1901, it provided a necessary commodity to the residents of Somers, a small town on the northern shore of Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi!

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In 1901, local Montana entrepreneur John O’Brien struck a deal with James J. Hill, the Great Northern Railway tycoon, to build and run a railroad spur line and sawmill in Somers, named after George Somers, an executive of the operation.

The sawmill provided lumber and much-needed railroad ties for the expansion of the Great Northern Railway. Likewise, the Somers Lumber Company also provided ice for hauling perishable goods and use on passenger cars. The ice was stored in the ice house pictured below!

Ice was harvested from the lake usually in late January and kept in the ice house year round. To keep ice cold – especially in the summer when it was needed most – the ice house was designed with several deceptively simple features.

For example, there are two layers of wood siding. One layer of wood siding runs diagonally along the side of the ice house. This layer is covered by another layer of horizontal wood siding. Together, these two layers provide strength and insulation to the walls.

The walls were three feet thick and were filled with sawdust to provide even more insulation. And this ice house had no shortage of sawdust, since it was in the middle of the Somers Lumber Company – the largest sawmill in the Flathead Valley at the time, producing about 600,000 railroad ties per year for the growing railroad.

The second-story door (not pictured - it's on the other side) may seem oddly out of place. However, it was used to load ice down into railroad freight cars, and later special “reefer” or refrigerator cars. This was dangerous work and falling and freezing were not uncommon tragedies.

Also, the two cupola atop the roof aren’t just for decoration. They are an integral part of a venting system designed to let warm air draft out and help keep the ice from melting.

While the ice house was well built and worked well, history would alter its utility.

By 1930, the introduction of electric refrigeration altered the need for natural ice. The use of the General Electric, the Frigidaire, the Kelvinator and other electric refrigerators spread during 1930 through 1960. And the ice houses across the nation soon became obsolete.

About the same time, expansion of the Great Northern Railway had run its course and a half million railroad ties were no longer needed every year.

The sawmill was shuttered in 1949. Since then, the ice house has survived...