Cascade Ice Company – Harvesting Ice on USAFA 1887

Cascade Ice Company of Colorado was incorporated in 1887. In southeast Pine Valley, they dammed up the West Monument Creek and built 2 reservoirs from which they harvested blocks of ice. David McShane, Monument pioneer, started a construction company 1887 and the photos you see show the exquisite rock work he and his team built to hold back water for Cascade Ice Lake #1. This structure was heavily damaged in floods of 2013. Cascade Ice Lake #2 was located in the north end of what today is Ice Lake on USAFA (it was built 1969 as a recreation lake). Cascade ice harvesters cut blocks of ice (800-3000 tons annually) November to April (it varied of course). The ice was stored in 80 ft x 130 ft ice sheds made of stone and wood and insulated with sawdust. A railroad box car with thick wood walls filled with sawdust for insulation would be parked on one of two sides and the ice loaded for shipment. Cascade ended operations at Cascade Ice Lakes in 1906.

Cascade Reservoirs No. 1 and No. 2

Location: Reservoir No. 1 in the NW1/4 of NW1/4 of SE1/4 Sec/ 36 T12S R67W. Reservoir No. 2 in the W ½ of SE1/4 of SE1/4 Sec. 36 T12S R67W. A Connection pipeline ran through the SE1/4 of NW1/4 of SE1/4 Sec. 36 T12S R67W.

Description: Reservoir No. 1 was constructed by building a stone dam across West Monument Creek. It had a capacity of 600,000 cubic feet. Reservoir No. 2, presently known as Ice Lake, was also manmade. It had a capacity of 1,200,000 cubic feet at the time of construction. It was fed by an eight-inch iron pipe from Reservoir No. 1 having a capacity of 3.5 cubic feet per second.

Date of construction: 1887 by the Cascade Ice Company for the storage of water for putting up ice and for irrigation and domestic use.