(Originally published Tuesday, February 21, 2012.)
The winter of 2011-12 has been pretty snowless so far. We usually get annual total snowfalls ranging
from about 60 inches to over 100 in the greater Bangor area, but this year we
are falling far short of that. We had
just a trace of snow here in the Bangor area in February so far, but of course
we can still get significant snowfall in March and April, so, no counting
chickens.
Thinking about the lack of snow this year (which is cause
for celebration among some and cause for mourning among other Mainers), I got
to thinking about how people got around in the snow in the past, before the
plow and sand trucks were invented. I
noticed in our collection several mentions of a “snow roller,” so I thought I
would look into it. Here is what I
found.
In 1976 Linda Madden interviewed Geraldine Hale in Lisbon
Falls Maine. Mrs. Hale described snow rollers:
They were still using the snow rollers when I came to town.
Most people put their cars up for the winter, because the roads weren’t cleared
so they could run cars. They used to have these big rollers drawn by several
horses, two to four horses, and they would roll the snow down; pack the snow
down hard on the road so that sleighs could be driven and the horses wouldn’t
sink in. The first year I was here in
town it was quite an open winter (1921).
But the next winter we had a lot of snow and they used the snow rollers
and packed it down. We had so much snow
and it got packed down so hard that I can remember downtown in front of some of
the stores they had cut steps in the packed snow and ice so that you could to
go from the sidewalk up onto the top of the roadway and go across and then down
the other side and we wondered how on earth they were going to get rid of all
that ice when spring came. (Accession 1068 page 6).
Linda Madden also interviewed Leon Bard in Lisbon Falls,
Maine. Mr. Bard talks about driving the
snow roller:
I’d take a set of double horse sleds. Put two to four to six
horses on it according to how much snow you had to plow through. Put a pole
across under the sled, generally a small log, probably six inches to eight
inches through, about ten feet long. The sled was about five feet long. It
would stick out on both sides. Take a small fir tree, about six feet high. Had
one on each side, chained it right to the end of the pole so the snow went over
the pole. It’d load up in the branches. Then go along and pack the sides down.
These big lumps of snow would come over and we’d break them up. We’d hook a
chain in back to drag it out. (Accession 1067 pages 115-16).
In 1996 UM history
graduate student Mary Ellen Barnes interviewed Herb Eastman in his home in
Chatham, New Hampshire. Their interview
covered several topics relating to Mr. Eastman’s grandfather’s career as a
carpenter, farmer and logger. Mr.
Eastman described several processes, one of them how to build a snow roller.
{My Grandfather] made snow rollers. He made two for the town
of Chatham, one for the town of Stow. He
got a hundred dollars each for them. There were many hours of hand sawing. He made them out of oak. I’ve kicked myself
time and again that I didn’t get hold of one and preserve it…His was made of
wood. Some of them they just took a good sized metal wheel and bolted planks to
it. Then put weights on. His was made out of oak and he made the spokes out of
6x6 oak. He cut the pieces to make the rim. There was three pieces bolted
together to make the rim and to make it into a circle, so that there was three
pieces wide so that the rim came out six inches wide across the face of it.
Then the planking was put on with lag screws --that was 3 inch oak. It was put
on with lag screws, so the roller was heavy enough so it didn’t have to have a
counter weight on it or anything. (Accession 2493).
Not sure I could make one from that description, but I did get
an idea of how they work.
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