Ice House

Ice House. . This is Higgins Lake Nursery's ice house. It was built in 1912 on the northern shore of Higgins Lake to store ice and tree seeds. It was used until 1953, when nursery workers installed modern coolers in the packing house for seed storage., After the nursery closed in 1965, the building served North Higgins Lake State Park as a crew shack. In 1972, Park Manager Bernie Williams saw the ice house's historic value, and successfully asked to move it here., Why did the nursery need an ice house? , Trees that grow in cold climates, like white, jack, and red pine, have seeds that are buried in snow for several months before sprouting., To recreate that cold and dark environment, seeds were stored in ten-gallon milk cans in the ice house, where they were safe from hungry mice, mold and rot., Each container could hold 40 to 42 pounds of seed. Depending on the species, there are from 27,000 to 71,000 seeds per pound How many seeds could be stored in each can?, In the spring, most of these seeds were successfully planted by nursery workers. Hundreds of millions of trees transplanted throughout Michigan had their start here., Every winter nursery workers harvested ice from Higgins Lake and stacked it in the Ice house with sawdust. When property packed and insulated, the ice would stay frozen all summer.