Ice Cream

[Fox Creek Kid]

So how did Tombstone have an ice cream parlor in 1881 when there was no railhead there nor electricity? Ice cartaged by freighters? 

[Mean Bob Mean]

They did freight in ice as I recall.

[Major 2]

 had an underground root cellar,  Cut Ice in the winter and packed it in with straw.

They churned the cream with rock salt & ice & added flavor like vanilla, honey or sugar

[Delmonico]

I'm not sure, but perhaps they also had freighted in one of those new-fangled ammonia ice plants that chilled a brine and the galvanized cans full of water were run through it.  Those had been around for about 10 years and were getting popular in places ice was hard to find. 

The exact way the ice got there would be a good research project for someone with some extra time on their hands, since that ice cream parlors were around all through the west and there were a couple methods of obtaining ice, I think there are more important things for me to research.       

[Karl]

Another factor is that ice cream recipes have changed in America.  Compare how mush richer Russian ice cream is than modern American ice cream:  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Russian-Plombir-Ice-Cream vs http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vanilla-Ice-Cream-V/Detail.aspx?evt19=1   

I have had Indian cardamon ice cream so rich that when it "melted" the spoon still stood up in it.  The point is that it was so rich that a little went a long ways which greatly reduced the need for ice from what ever source(s).   We passed around a pint of this very rich Indian ice cream at a camping event one summer and nearly 20 of us did not finish the pint even though it was very good.  You all need to try a little. 

http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring10/icecream.cfm

This article makes it sound unlikely that they had any sort of freezer: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrefrigerator.htm  They probably hauled in ice packed in straw and sawdust.

[Delmonico]

Interesting because many sources show them coming around much earlier, Natchez Missisippi had their first one in 1871

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dqr01

http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/343/making-ice-in-mississippi

Like I said, I don't know or care if Tombstone had one, but we know they had an ice cream parlor or so it is said. 

[Major 2]

I'm not sure, but perhaps they also had freighted in one of those new-fangled ammonia ice plants that chilled a brine and the galvanized cans full of water were run through it.  Those had been around for about 10 years and were getting popular in places ice was hard to find. 

The exact way the ice got there would be a good research project for someone with some extra time on their hands, since that ice cream parlors were around all through the west and there were a couple methods of obtaining ice, I think there are more important things for me to research.       

Good possibility, San Antonio & Austin both had one, as did New Orleans. 

[Karl]

Interesting because many sources show them coming around much earlier, Natchez Missisippi had their first one in 1871

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dqr01

http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/343/making-ice-in-mississippi

Like I said, I don't know or care if Tombstone had one, but we know they had an ice cream parlor or so it is said. 

I like your sources better.   

[Delmonico]

I like your sources better.   

I did quite a bit of research on ice as one of the supplies a cook might need/want for the book I'm working on.   

[Delmonico]

Good possibility, San Antonio & Austin both had one, as did New Orleans. 

They were often cheaper and easier than shipping it by clipper, yes ice went around the Horn on Clippers.

[Cutter Carl]

In the old county courthouse in Tombstone which is now a museum there is a display that shows Tombstone had not one but two ice plants. 

I don't have the exact date but the "modern" ammonia chiller technology was developed in England in the 1700's. 

Water was in good supply if you dug for it.  The silver production in Tombstone ceased and the town languished for decades before it became the tourist town it is now after the silver mines flooded from underground water. 

[Cutter Carl]

Some more information on ice plants. 

Ice made by the plants was called "artificial ice" as opposed to "natural ice".

Floridian Dr. john Gorrie built the first ice making machine in the U.S. in 1845 and received a patent in 1851.

San Antonio got an ice making machine by the Union blockade and started making ice in 1865. 

By the late 1870's Texas had multiple ice plants in operation. 

By the turn of the century in 1900 there were 766 ice plants in the U.S.   

[Delmonico]

I kind of figured there was an ice plant there, funny the OP is known to tell people to do the research themselves before asking questions.  Guess it was too much work this time.