 |
Ranch
House
|
 |
Barn
|
 |
Chicken
House
|
 |
Carriage
House
|
 |
Outhouse
|
 |
Summer
Kitchen
|
 |
Spring
Room
|
 |
Cistern
|
 |
Ice
House
|
 |
School
|
|
Virtual
Tour of the Spring House
| "Pioneers looked for a spring and built their homes
near it. It kept their thirst (and that of their animals)
satisfied and their food from spoiling. It was the only refrigeration
known for years. Usually a house or building was built over
the spring out of rock and a tree was planted near the door.
A stone trough was built in the spring house. Through it ran
cold, slow flowing spring water. Earthenware crocks of milk
were placed, neck deep, in the water. It was always cool in
the spring house, even in the warmest of days. A gourd dipper
hung in the spring house so men coming in from the hot field
could stop for a draft of cold water. The dog quenched his
thirst from the overflow at the back of the spring house and
a flock of ducks noisily investigated the trickling stream
for tidbits. Watercress grew in the shallows." (Taken
from The Good Old Days, The Spring House, R.J. McGinnis, F.
& W. Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, page 76.) |
|
|
 |
|
|
This building is the curing room, but underneath
it is the spring room.
If you look to the far right in the photo, you will see the
roof of the entrance into the spring room.
|
This is the original entrance into
the spring room. Today there is
a tunnel from the house into the spring room You will see
this
tunnel in the photo below.
|
| This is the back side of the door into the spring
room. The front of this door is in the photo to the left. This
was the original entrance and exit to and from the spring room. |
Modern Refrigeration - 1880s Style
This
is the entrance to the tunnel that leads from the original
kitchen to the spring house. The screen door (black, narrow
object) was added by Gladys Slabaugh, so she could open the
door and look through the screen door to check for snakes
before entering the tunnel. The shower was added so the ranch
hands/cowboys could come in for a noon meal and clean up.
One of the shower heads can be seen directly to the left of
the lightbulb. |
This is the interior of the spring room.
The view is looking back into the tunnel.
Notice the crock sitting in the trough.
Spring water from the cistern was piped into the trough in
the spring house. It ran all the way around the trough to
the other side of the room and was then collected in another
cistern located to the east of the tunnel door.
Underground spring water is very cool and the spring house
was like our walk-in refrigerators of today.
No water runs into the spring room today,
so the temperature is based on the sheer insulation of the
room and if the doors are kept closed. Even in the hot summers,
the room is still much cooler than outside.
|
This thermometer measures the constant temperature of the
spring room. It stays at a
constant cool temperature, due to the cold spring water
that would run into the trough.
The Jones' would keep their homemade butter, cheese, milk,
and any other food stuffs
in this room. This was modern refrigeration for the time.
This method of refrigeration
is still used today in some parts of the country.
|
|
This photo was taken in 1935.
This original floor was soil and stone.
Today it is concrete.
|
|
|
|
