Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1895 — A Natural Ice-Box. [ARTICLE]

A Natural Ice-Box.

About fifteen miles west of Red Bud, 111., on the banks of the Mississippi river, is a natural curiosity, being no less than a refrigerator formed by some unexplained law of nature. A short time ago Farmer Wallace dug a cellar in the slmley hillside, where the rocks are thin and brittle, in order to get a storage place for milk and other edibles. After digging back a few feet, he was surprised to find layers of ice between the layers of rock, and as it was cool inside, and it promised to be more than be expected in the way of a refrigerator, he finished it up by putting in a door. He finds by trial that everything placed inside, such as meats, milk, fruits or other perishable articles, keeps perfectly for any length of time. During the hottest weather last summer milk stored in this cellar would make the teeth ache to drink it. Mr. G. V. Kettler, of this city, says it is a wonder, and not at all like a common cellar, but a veritable ice-box. made so by the natural ice formed inside, liow, it is not known.