Way before the days of refrigeration, one of the annual rituals in the region was the harvesting of ice. As anyone who has lived around these parts for any length time, winter can be finicky. Such was the case in January 1904 when the Susan River was frozen over, the ice being over eight inches think. It was imperative to harvest as much ice as possible before there would be a change in the weather.

Now enter Susanville’s sporting fraternity on a betting proposition in which considerable money was waged. The bet was whether Andy Buchler could cut twenty tons of ice in ten hours. Buchler surprised everyone by sawing twenty-two tons in eight hours!

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