THE CHILL OF ICE MOUNTAIN

In Hampshire County, West Virginia, near North River Mills, is a remarkable mountain range, extending for about five miles in northeast-southwest direction along North River. The early settlers noted the remarkable effect the chill of the mountain had upon its surroundings and called it Ice Mountain.

Henry Howe, in his Historical Collections of Virginia (1845), presents one of the earliest detailed accounts of this interesting feature, calling it “one of the greatest natural curiosities of Virginia.”

The west side of the mountain, [he said] for about a quarter of a mile, is covered with a mass of loose stone of light color, which reaches down to the bank of the river.. . . By removing the loose stone, pure crystal ice can always be found in the warmest days of summer. It has been discovered even as late as the s₅th of September; but never in October, although it may exist throughout the entire year, and be found, if the rocks were excavated to a sufficient depth. The body of rocks where the ice is found s subject to the full rays of the sun from nine o’clock in the morning until sunset. The sun does not have the effect of melting the ice as much as continued rains. At the base of the mountain is a spring of water colder by several degrees than spring water generally is. ‘Very near this spring,’ says Kercheval [Samuel Kercheval, A History of die Valley of Virginia], the owner of the property has removed the stone, and erected a small log dairy, for the preservation of his milk, butter, and fresh meats. ‘When the author saw this little building. which was late in the month of April, the openings between the logs. (on the side next to the cavity from which the stone had been taken out), for about eighteen inches or two feet from the floor, were completely filled with ice, and about one-half the floor was covered with ice several inches thick. Mr. Deavers, who is the owner of the property, informed the author that milk, butter, or fresh meats or every kind, are perfectly safe from injury for almost any length of time, in the hottest weather. If a fly ventures in, he is immediately stiffened with thecold and becomes torpid. If a snake in his rambles happens to pass over the rocks covering the ice, he soon loses all motion, and dies. Christopher Heiskell, Esq., informed the author that several instances had occurred of the snakes being found dead among the rocks covering the ice. An intelligent young lady at the same time stated that she had seen instances of this character. In truth, it was upon her first suggesting the fact, that the author was led to make inquiry or Mr. Hèiskell. And Mr. Deavers stated that he had several times removed torpid flies from his dairy into a more temperate atmosphere, when they soon recovered life and motion, and flew off.’

Charles B Harden, in an issue of ‘Silliman’s Journal” the same year 1845),thus accounts for the phenomenon of the preservation of ice in the mountain:

The solution, I perceive, is to be found in the large and unusual collection of rocks, which from their porous homogeneous texture are extremely poor conductors of heat. One side o the mountain consists of a massive wall many hundred feet in thickness, and heaped up against this as an abutment, is a mass of rocks containing several thousand cubic feet. As the mountain has a general direction from NE. to SW., the talus heap containing the ice has a NW. exposure. The cavernous nature of this heap would admit the free entrance of atmospheric waters, which during the winter would form ice in the interior of the mass. The ice thus situated would be protected from external heat by the surrounding rocks, as ice in a refrigerator is isolated and protected from the external temperature, by the non-conducting sides of the refrigerator. The Ice Mountain only requires for the explanation of its phenomenon, the application of the familiar principle upon which is constructed the common refrigerator, which temporarily effects what the Ice Mountain permanently does—a temperature independent of external causes. The Ice Mountain is, in fact, a huge sandstone refrigerator, whose increased and unusual effects beyond those of the ordinary refrigerator, are due to the increased and unusual collection of poor conducting materials which form its sides.

Actually the mountain is largely a huge block of Oriskany Sandstone with very sparse vegetation, many bare rock slopes, and vertical cliffs. The natural phenomenon from which it takes its name is essentially restricted to a section about 200 yards long, near the southern end. Crowning the ridge is Raven Rocks (general elevation 1230 feet above sea level), with vertical cliffs nearly zoo feet high. The elevation at the level of the river is about 700 feet above sea level, and the highest point is i 509 feet above sea level. Rock detritus tumbling down the steep slopes has formed a talus at the base fifty feet thick in some places. From the foot of the talus the continual expulsion of cold air may be felt perceptibly several feet away and the area, today, as in 1845, is in effect a huge natural refrigerator.

H.L. Swisher, in Maxwell and Swisher’s History of Hampshire County (1897), said that it “seems admirably adapted as a site for a dairy, or with the expenditure of considerable capital, it could be made a famous summer resort. But such was not to be.

The open nature of the talus permits free circulation of air and water in the spaces between the boulders. During the winter ice is formed from rain and snow in the crevices of the rocks, until the mountainside for many feet beneath the surface is a mass of ice imbedding the rocks. The outer ice acts as a protection to that deeper in the rocks by sealing it off from the outside air, while the deeper ice acts in a preserving manner by lowering the temperature. When warm weather comes the higher ice gradually disappears, while the deeper ice remains because it is less exposed to the effects of the sun’s rays. As the season advances it becomes necessary to dig deeper among the loose rocks to find ice. The expulsion of cold air results from the surrounding air circulation among the rocks and ice, becoming cooler and settling, gravity eventually forcing it out at the base of the talus slope. Years ago, before electrical refrigeration was available, it was a real novelty for picnickers. as late as August, to dig out ice for use in preparing homemade ice cream.

In August, 1964, Leslie C. McDowell. of Charleston, visited the area with scientific instruments. He suspended a thermometer three feet from the ground and secured a reading 88’F. in the shade. He next moved the thermometer .into one of the rock grottoes and left it for fifteen minutes, about six feet from the entrance. Here he obtained a reading of 38F.

So low are the temperatures that the growth of the vegetation is notably affected. Where limbs from bordering trees and shrubs extend over the cold area near the surface, their leaves remain undeveloped for many days after those on the other side are fully grown.

Even more remarkable is the presence of several species of plants quite northern in their general range, found elsewhere in \Vest Virginia if at all) only at the highest elevations, whereas here they are at only ~o feet above sea level. Several of these Arctic plants are found along the base of Ice Mountain (See page 45.)

The Acicular Rose (Rosa acicularis) is found in West Virginia only at Ice Mountain, the southernmost stand known. It ranges northwards to Quebec and Yukon, the northernmost of the American roses.

The so-called Oak Fern (Gvmnocarpium dryopteris), rare in West Virginia but occasionally found in moist spruce woods and cold mountain swamps is also in this naturally-refrigerated spot. It ranges northward to Greenland, Labrador, and Alaska.

The Prickly Gooseberrv (Ribes cynnosbati) is common in West Virginia in the high mountains but Ice Mountain is its only stand in low elevations. Its northern limits are in Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. The Skunk Currant (Ribes glandulosum), the herbage when bruised that gives a strong skunk-like odor, is also a plant of high mountains in West Virginia, found here at 700 feet. It is found northwards as far as Labrador, Mackenzie. and Northern British Columbia.

Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum) is mostlv found in West Virginia above 3000 feet. Like several other high mountain plants, its presence at Ice Mountain, near stands of low elevation species is anomolous.

The Dwarf Cornel or Bunchberry (Comus canedensis), a diminutive dogwood. is a plant one usually looks for on high mountain summits, such as Spruce Knob and Dolly Sods. It can be seen northwards to Greenland, Labrador, and Alaska.

One of the most remarkable of the Ice Mountain rarities is the delicately beautiful Twinflower (Linnaea borealis) .Elsewhere in West Virginia it is known only from the Sinks of Gandy in Randolph County and Blister Swamp in Pocahontas County; both stands are at elevations close to 4000 feet, but at Ice Mountain it is at 700 feet. It is a circumpolar species, found on the Arctic shores of Europe and Asia ranging across Arctic North America from Alaska to Labrador and Greenland, south in the Rockies to Utah, in the Appalachians to West Virginia.

The Sheepberry or Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago). is a mountain shrub in West Virginia and ranges northwards to Quebec and Manitoba. It, too, has been found at the base of Ice Mountain.

There are doubtless other unusual plants still to be discovered in the unusual habitat and so far as I know the animal life has scarcely been studied at all.

(p. 128 THE WONDROUS YEAR: West Virginia Through the Seasons, August, Core, Earl, L., Seneca Books, Inc. Grantsville, WV)