Plumas County Adventures
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Keeping cool in the old days
How did the old timers keep their food cold? If your answer was "Put
it in the refrigerator" you get a zero on this quiz. If you had answered
"Put it in the ice box" then you scored some points (and are no
doubt over 40).
On my travels in Plumas National Forest I have found two examples of primitive
food coolers. The first is a "spring house" and the second is
a "spring box."
The spring house is really a small cabin (actually a shack by most standards)
that has large screened windows and a waterproof tar paper roof with a roof
sprinkler. The sprinkler would keep the roof wet and cool by evaporative
cooling. The screen would keep the bugs out. Here it is.
And here is a closeup of the roof sprinkler:
The spring box was usually found inside a similar wooden structure or inside
a cave that had been dug into a hill. The spring box is really a box within
a box. The inner box contains the food and the outer box contains circulating
cold water from a spring. The inner box stays dry (in theory) and cool.
When my daughter Rhonda and her husband Bob go on adventures, I get to babysit
Casey. In the next picture you will see Casey near the concrete spring box
we found in a ravine near Haskin's Valley.
Well, I think I'll head to the refrig, get some grub and fry it on the old
electric stove. Then take a hot shower. Then I'll enjoy some mind-numbing
TV and crank up the electric blanket.
How many of really appreciate the luxuries that we enjoy every day? Take
another look at the pictures above and think about it.
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