Ice cutting on Wolf Lake

Ice cutting was an early industry on Wolf Lake. Ice would be cut and used to keep meat from Chicago stockyards cold while being transported east in railroad cars. Knickerbocker Company was one such company. Jim Vodak, in an oral history from 1988, remembered, “The ice house was owned in later years by the Meinkes (?). They lived in Hammond, Indiana [across Wolf Lake from Hegewisch]…In fact, as a boy, I remember cutting ice in the lake, but just a little vein. But the ice house was not in operation then. It was already defunct. But the ice they were taking out, they were cutting it and dragging it across the lake and putting it in the ice house with this draw, and that sort of thing.”