In January, 1947, fruit growers in the Grand Valley were preparing to ship by rail freshly harvested peaches from Palisade to locations around the country.
There werenât any fresh peaches in January, of course. That fruit wouldnât be ready to harvest for another eight or nine months.
But another critical commodity was being harvested that winter and shipped to Grand Junction in preparation for the peach harvest to come.
Ice.
When harvest time arrived, ice-cooled railroad cars called reefers, âwere pre-iced in Grand Junction to ensure the fruit was cooled when loaded into the car,â wrote Matt Darling in his book âThe History of Railroads in Palisade, Colorado.â The book was published by the Palisade Historical Society and was released late last year.