Maine Memory Network

Also called a snowshoe hammer or snow knocker, this tool is used for removing ice and snow from the shoes of horses.

Size: 9 1/2" long, iron handle 4 1/2" long, 1/2" round face.

These children are standing beneath an ice-covered tree on Oxford Street in Portland after the ice storm of January 1886.

A horse and cart come down Elm Street, near the watering trough, in Topsham. They are beyond the fairgrounds. The photo was taken after the ice storm of April 2, 1887.

An unidentified lumber camp in northern Maine is nearly buried in deep snow. The photo was taken about 1893.

A large wooden roller pulled by a team of six horses in Waterford. Rolling was an early method of dealing with snow on roadways.

This photo of a winter scene - woods and snow, a sleigh with four people drawn by two horses, and a man standing alone, was taken about 1900.

Edith Knight Moulton shoveling snow. This photograph is part of the Jewett Family collection.

A horse drawn snowplow, used somewhere in northern Maine in about 1900.

Members of the Hicks family making a sled out of their snow shoes. This photograph comes from an album owned by the Hicks family.

Lisbon Street in Lewiston near the Music Hall after a winter storm. A trolley car can be seen going down the street. I.H. Estes Confectioner, a stationery shop, and an old clock line the street.

Deering Oaks Park in Portland was photographed during the winter of 1909-1910.

The Theodore A. Johnsen Company of Portland manufactured skis, sleds, snowshoes and ash cans.

On the back of this photograph is written, "The frontman of the forest racer. Red ribbons are tied at intervals onto the trees for miles by which they have to find their way to a given spot."

This photograph comes from a collection of the Theodore A. Johnsen Co. of Portland, manufacturer of skis, snowshoes, sleds and ash cans.

Children at Good Will Homes for Boys and Girls in Fairfield having a snowball fight with campus cottages in background.

The Ice Palace in City Park (south), Lewiston.

"The snowshoe clubs were an important part of local French culture. . . . The winter festivities centered around an ice palace constructed in the city park . . . or in Hulett Square on Main Street . . . . Most snowshoers arrived by train from Canada on a Saturday morning at the Grand Trunk station.

"In 1925, they raced on snowshoes to 'capture' city hall; in 1935 the sham attack was upon the ice palace. The weekend featured snowshoe races and a parade displaying colorful uniforms, bands, choral performances, and stunts such as throwing and catching persons in a blanket.

"The Sunday morning parade ended with mass in SS. Peter and Paul Church." From Douglas I. Hodgkin's pictorial history of Lewiston entitled "Lewiston Memories," page 117.

The King and Queen of the Winter Carnival in Portland. The Queen, Winona Drew, sits in a sleigh resting on the snow while the King, Major Edward E. Philbrook, stands behind the sleigh holding a long whip.

The automobile is a Rickenbacker, identified by the "hat-in-the-ring" symbol on the radiator.

Regina Carrier of Lewiston, left, came in first in the 100-yard snowshoe race at the American Snowshoe Union competition. Mary Ann Vachon, at right, also of Lewiston, came in second.

Biddeford hosted the annual competition that drew some 400 delegates from 12 clubs.

Club Voltigeur of Biddeford, which formed in 1926, hosted the event.

The Portland Company manufactured the Sargent snow loader, Portland Company No. 1., winter, 1927-1928.

It is pictured at the foot of India Street at Commercial Street in Portland.

A tractor with a "V" shaped plow that pushes the snow to the side in both directions plowing snow in Lovell, ca. 1930.

A snow roller pulled by horses owned by John Hamilton. The driver is Albert White.

A road roller was an improvement over a snowplow because it packed down the snow on the roads to make a wide, hard, smooth surface. In a snow storm, banks made from plowing a road trapped the blowing snow and the road would drift in.

The road roller did not make large snow banks. Rolled roads also were wider than plowed ones, allowing cars to more easily pass one another and did not confine teams of horses or upset sleighs, pungs or sleds.

A road roller was made from planks bolted to a drum-like frame.

Cars and buses littered Portland's Congress Street in the wake of an April blizzard that dumped 16 inches of snow. Strong winds whipped it into deep drifts, stranding vehicles throughout the area.