Cyclone of June 1908  

1908 - June The date not exactly know - a cylcone hit Culver and tore the big ice house into shreads - as evidence by the pictures below. Sections of the roof were carried out into the lake, winds reached 70 mph.

The date was Tuesday June 23, 1908 as shown in newspaper account; June of the year seemed to have been filled with at least 2 bad storms

A Cyclone Tears a Portion of the Big Ice House to Pieces - The Lose about $5,000

A cyclone wrecked half of the big ice house of the Maxinkuckee Lake Ice Co. on Tuesday afternoon, causing a loss extimated at $5,000 at least.

The storm came from the southwest at 1:30. The gale blew at a 70-mile gait and the air was sp filled with dust that buildings across the street could hardly be seen.

Nothing like iit has ever been witnessed here before, and it equaled the famous sand storms of the desert.

Small trees were broken down and a number of buildings in its vicinty were damaged

Barns on L. C. Dillion's and G. W. Plotner's farms were prtially unroofed.

A porch of Porter's lake cottage was taken up, carried over the house and deposited on the other side, the porch of the Heller cottage was wafted cross the road and left in the trees, and the porch of the Wheeler cottage was unroofed.

The disaster to the ices house was caused by a funnel-shaped clud which came lwith a roar like a railroad train.

Clark Ferrier, Ed Hawk, George Smith, Levi Bush and two or three others were engaged in painting the big structures.

The frightfull appearance of the clouds and the black wall of dust which followed gave the men sufficient warning and they had time to get away from the building before the crash came.

First the roof of the whole house was ripped off in sections, several of which were carried far out into the lake, and others dropped down on the railroad track maing a pile od debris four for five feet deep. The three south rooms, each 30x140 feet, were smashed down into a mass of wreckage, and the next room to the south had a portion of the south wall twisted out of line.

The railroad section hands were immediately callec out to clear the tracks and repair the telegraph line. Ferrier's men were also put at work.

Mr. Ferrier has ordered new material ans will rebuild at once. The two south rooms of the big house were empty and the thirds was nearly empty. The remaing two houses are full.

Mr. and Mrs George Miltonberger had a narrow escpe. They had just landed their row boat in front of the ice house and were hurring north along the railraod track when the the cyclone stuck. A section of the roof fell on the boat completely smashing it. June 25 - 1908 Citizen

And this is found in the 'One Township Yesteryear's - Corwin:

Hollingsworth & Reamer were owners of ice houses that were burned in June, 1906, ' Clark Ferrier tells us.

These were rebuilt, however, in 1906-07.

In the spring of '08, in May, to be exact, Ferrier traded his lumber yard at Lakeville for the ice houses at Lake Maxinkuckee.
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Then along came a cyclone in June and blew them down. There was a tower-like elevator at one end of the ice houses. Clark Ferrier was in there, when a terrific wind came suddenly from the west-by-southwest.

Several boats were on the lake. The occupants scarcely had a chance to act before the blow was upon them.

Then came a dash for the nearest share, and they all got in, although same just made it and that's all. They were just in the nick of time. Some were hoisted up the wall at the ice house.

While this was going on, the big frame structure was rent asunder. Then pandemonium was let loose. Boards and timbers went flying lakeward. The front wall fell over on the railroad tracks as the roof and other parts of the building flew across and into the lake, hich became strewn with the wreckage.

The railroad tracks were impassable until such a time as they could be cleared. The lake had been whipped into an angry sea, and nothing could have rode out the storm less than a steamboat.
It was all so sudden. And what a wild time was had by all while it lasted!