living
SCAPES
Staff of the Lethbridge Ice Company in front of the company’s facilities at 715 Fifth Avenue South.
Lethbridge Ice Company
C O U R T E S Y O F T H E G A LT M U S E U M & A R C H I V E S
T R I S H P U R K I S , A R C H I V E S A S S I S TA N T
L O N G B E F O R E individual refrigerators and freezers, residents got their supply of ice from the
Lethbridge Ice Company. Owned and operated by Charles H. Van Horne, the company was founded
in 1922 and located at 714 Fifth Avenue South. Charles came to Lethbridge in April 1897 from
Ontario, and ranched for the next several years. He partnered with William McAdoo and ran City
Cartage, which dealt with house moving, and ice and coal delivery, before opening the Lethbridge
Ice Company.
The harvesting of ice was done on the Old Man River and completed in the winter months. A
portable motorized circular blade, operated by an automobile engine, was used to cut the ice into
blocks which were moved up from the water by horsepower to a wooden framed ramp and finally
onto a flatbed truck. A block of ice weighed between 40 and 50 pounds, and over 4,000 tons of ice
could be harvested.
By the 1930s, the use of ice chests in the home was slowly being replaced by new electric
refrigerators. These modern conveniences were powered by electricity that had been introduced in
the 1930s. As more ice company customers switched to this method, the demand for ice suppliers
dropped. A visit from the iceman ended when Charles Van Horne closed the business in 1953 after
more than thirty years in business.
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