When The Reach Froze Over

Interview Contact: Bradley Sawyer

When I went to interview my great-grandfather at his apartment at Deer Run, he was sitting on one side of the table and my step-grandfather on the other side in there kitchen.

"Well, about the only thing I can tell you about is the toughest winter I ever saw in my life. That was in 1934, and I started working for Reg Greenlaw in the middle of the winter. My wages were $5.00 a week, and when I got married the next Juily, he gave me $7.00. That winter the temperature got down to around minus 27 degrees below zero, and the Reach froze over, and the ferry was no longer running. The truck that delievered gas from Ellsworth came to the Sargentville side, and we would take Reggie's motorcycle and a sled, and haul a barrel of gas at a time, 'til he got a truckload, to bring down to the island.

Then after a while, the whole Reach got froze over, so that then he used a Plymouth Convertible that was built into a truck. Him and I would go across and get three barrels at a time from the truck over on Sargentville, and bring across where the ferry used to run. After a while, the Reach froze enough so the truck from Ellsworth could come right straight across, and bring the gas over. That's how thick the ice got there at the Reach! There was one truck that went through the ice... a brand new Chevrolet pick-up... it belonged to Maynard Scott. It broke through the ice and they lost her. I heard afterwards they got the truck out; I don't know for sure.

I can remember that same winter, the Stonington Harbor froze over, and they had to have a government boat called the KICKAPOO come in and break down the ice. She was about 150 feet long, I guess, all steel and had kind of a flat bottom. She would be right out of the water, wheel, rudder and everything. She'd sit there, and by and by the ice would start cracking, and down she'd go. She'd do that time after time to get into the steamboat wharf. After awhile the ice got so thick, the KICKAPOO could not break it and they had to dynamite."

Jason Robbins