Artifical Ice andHot Summer Days   (comments excerpted from email messages generated on the SheridanExpress chat site.) Joy (Bruce) Troutt '73: I have an all metal ice pick that was stamped with "SHERIDAN  ARTIFICIAL  ICE CO." and on opposite side it had "PHONE 220". My gr-grandfather hauled ice by horse/wagon approximately in 1910 in  Sheridan. I have no idea if the ice co. was "Artificial Ice" or was something else at the time. I was trying to locate any info. on the ice co. of thetime era for my genealogy research that I'm doing. Mary Hutton, '48: In answer to Joy Troutt's question about the Sheridan Artificial Ice Company, I took Bill Heagy's advice and called Elton Robinson (Percy Robinson's son).  This is what he told me. In the early 1900's, there was the Crystal Ice Company, located on NorthBeckton Avenue.  Percy went to work there in 1922.  There was alsoSheridan Ice Company on Jefferson Street by the dam, and it was owned byFrank Robinson, Elt's Uncle.  The ice was cut from the creek and storedin sawdust, then delivered by horse and wagon.  In 1923 there were badfloods which left only slush. In 1924 Frank Robinson  and some other men purchased the Crystal Ice company from Jim Dodd and changed the name to Sheridan Artificial Ice Company.  That same year they went to Billings and purchased machinery to manufacture artificial ice and moved the company to 302  North Custer and beganprocessing  ice.  Phone 220 Henry Wautenpaugh bought the company in 1946 and changed the name to Northern Ice Company.  He expanded the company and started processing meat and renting frozen food lockers.  Main employees were Percy Robinson, Jack Webb, and Nerle Verley.  In 1950 the business was sold to Metz Beverage and they are still using the building. Mary Dowling '43: I too remember the iceman coming to bring ice...no refrigerators just a ice box...funny no one became ill. Now days we hear so many stories of poisoning with all our modern conveniences???? Have enjoyed all the stories and I too wish a gifted writer would be able to put all the stories together make a great book...thanks to all for your wonderful input. Bob Hylton, '51: I think Br. Jim has the location pretty much correct.  It was in the area where the tracks curved east, of the east side of the tracks. My memories are of going down there with Dad to get a block of ice to chipup and smash for the ice cream freezer.  I couldn't imagine why theplace smelled so much of ammonia, though I now realize it was the coolantthat froze the stuff in the first place. We bought the house at 403 Kilbourne in 1950.  It had the luxury (as it must have been before the War) of an icebox built into the wall by the back door so that the ice could be delivered without carrying it throughthe house. There were probably more houses built in the early 1900's withthe  same feature. Jim Kelly, '55: The Ice House saga reminds me of when the Ice Man visited our house on Val Vista. When the Ice Man drove into our neighborhood it was similar to anice cream truck today.  In the back of his covered pickup truck, hecarried many large blocks of ice. He would take an ice pick and  makeseveral quick sticks  into the blocks. Suddenly it would snap in half.  He would then take a huge ice clamp and pick up the piece he had severed...place it on his leather covered  shoulder and deliver it into someone's ice box. While he was gone however, Dean Fox, Delwyn Sullivan and I would quickly grab a bunch of ice chips and run like the devil to hide with  our bounty. We were certain that the Ice Man would chase us and retrieve all the chips...but the Ice man  never did. On a hot summer day in Sheridan  thoseice chips were better than you could ever imagine.... Clara Blakeman Lehman. '53: We still had ice delivered in the late 1940's - I think the Ice Companythen was Northern Ice.  Can almost remember where the ice house was,but not quite.  I do remember running out to the truck and "stealing"ice chips off the back end on those hot summer days. Milt Cunningham, '44: I remember an artificial ice company, but have no recollection of its name or location. The only one I definitely recall was north of Basil Dean's gravel pit. It was REAL ice cut from the river, not artificial ice. When I was young my father would send me to the Jersey Creamery for 15 cents worth of ice to make ice cream. I would get a block perhaps 18 inches cube.I recall seeing in their room the big blocks maybe 3 feet by 2 feet by 1.5foot. Just guessing. I don't know whether they made them or bought them,but they were the same kind of blocks the ice trucks drivers used to cutfrom for housewives. Is there a kid closing on eighty who never did that? I recall dashing across the lawn, then slowing almost to a stop as we picked barefooted across the gravel to get to the truck. I also recall, if there were no shavings, the ice man would make some for us.