A photo taken in 1854.
In the 19th century ice was cut into huge blocks and shipped from Spy Pond (Arlington, MA) as far as India.
A photo of Spy Pond taken from my porch on January 29, 2020. No ice anywhere on the 100 acre lake. Further comment probably unnecessary.
Yes, fewer and fewer days of frozen ice on Spy Pond each year now, nothing that would even evoke the thought of an ice business currently! I’m sure the wildlife in and around the pond has changed since then, too. Changed migratory patterns, for example.
Thanks, Gail. It’s good to see that print of the old ice-harvesting days on Spy Pond. A large copy used to hang in the Cambridge Savings Bank in Arlington Center.
In a similar vein was Richard Primack’s recent talk, sponsored by the Arlington Land Trust, on his research using Thoreau’s diaries about Walden Pond in the 1850s to show local climate change impacts. Learn about this research on The Primack Lab website https://www.rprimacklab.com/ or read his book, Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods, https://www.rprimacklab.com/walden-warming
Note the coal-fired steam locomotive in the background of the 1854 picture.