|
| Hugh Smith participated in his last ice harvest in 1934 before he lost the business to the Cedar Falls Trust and Savings Bank. The development of artificial ice and electric refrigerators proved to be the downfall of the ice cutting industry in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area. Despite the industry's demise, many small towns in the area continued to cut ice from rivers, streams, and ponds because it was more affordable. Artificial ice and refrigerators were so much more efficient that the natural ice business could not compete. |
|
||
| By Chris Parkhurst Fall 1998 Edited By Julie Erickson |
