Idaho Cave Was Once A Massive Beer Cooler For Settlers

There was a time, not all that long ago, when people struggled to keep food and beverages cold and would depend on neighbors to store their goods.

Cold storage was extremely hard to manage before the invention of home refrigeration more than 100 years ago. Beer, in particular, was drunk warm by most people prior to the twentieth century, because home refrigeration units weren't made available to the public until the 1930s.

Beer kegs were invented in the 1840s, but didn't keep the beverage nearly as cold as we're accustomed to drinking it today.

People had to harvest ice in the winter from lakes and rivers and store massive blocks of it in areas that stayed cool through summer, like cellars and ice houses. One cave, located 27 miles north of Twin Falls, was once known as the best place to store food and beer for hundreds of miles.

The Shoshone Ice Caves Were Once Used To Store Beer For Early Settlers

Nowadays, you can tour the Shoshone Ice Caves with a guide all week long. I recently took the tour and learned a lot about its history, which was fascinating. What isn't discussed during the adventure is how settlers used the caves as their private beer cellars for centuries.

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The Shoshone Ice Caves remain below 28 degrees all year, and there are more than 20 tons of ice down there, according to KPVI. It's well documented that westerners traveled from all over, sometimes spanning hundreds of miles, to enjoy cold beer in the caves, according to ldolphin.org.