THE COUDERSPORT ICE MINE. 



BY EDWIN SWIFT BALCH. 

 {Read, December 2, 1921.) 



About four miles east of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, and some 

 three hundred yards southwest of the little village of Sweden Valley 

 on the state road to Wellsboro, is a " glaciere naturelle," or natural 

 refrigerator, known as the " Coudersport Ice Mine." It is situated 

 on a hillside and a rough mountain road enables you to drive a motor 

 to within six feet of the entrance. 



The story of the Ice Mine is rather curious. About 1894 some 

 people conceived the idea that silver might exist in the hill near 

 Sweden Valley and proceeded to dig a shaft to search for it. Instead 

 of silver, as they dug down, they found layers of ice in the rocks. 

 In the fall they abandoned their enterprise. The next spring ice 

 formed in the shaft and this now occurs annually. The name " Ice 

 Mine" came of itself from these circumstances and, although some 

 people criticize the name because no ice is ever taken from the shaft, 

 to me it appeals strongly in that it is not only descriptive, but that it 

 is also distinctive from the names of all other glacieres. It was pure 

 accident which led to the discovery of ice in the rocks surrounding 

 the Ice Mine, and ice might have continued forming there unnoticed 

 year after year except for the digging of the shaft. And this sug- 

 gests that there may be, and that there probably are, many other such 

 natural refrigerators still unknown in mountainous regions. 



Of course, the wonder of the dwellers of Coudersport and vicinity 

 was aroused and all the old theories about glacieres were put forward 

 once more to account for the formation of the ice: that the ice is 

 mysteriously due to the heat of summer ; that there are chemicals in 

 the rocks; that the ice is consolidated vapor; that it is caused by 

 pressure ; that it is due to evaporation, etc. Some of the statements 

 made about the Ice Mine are identical with statements made about 



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