In 1886, a group of business people formed the Tahoe Ice Company at Winsted. They built a 75-foot dam which created an 80 acre pond used to make ice. They added infrastructure such as roads, stables and a large warehouse, 290' by 130', for the harvested ice. Macaulay, T, Truckee-Donner Historical Society newsletter "Echoes From The Past" (March 2015) pp. 4-5. It was reported to be the most efficient ice harvesting operation on the Truckee River. In 1901, the much larger National Ice Company took over the Tahoe Ice Company and installed D. M. Dysart as manager. Truckee Republican, September 7, 1901. Dysart was considered to be the “Ice King of the Sierras," having been in the ice business over 20 years. Truckee Republican, December 2, 1905. He expanded National's operation at Polaris, and built a house there, affectionately known as the Pink Palace because of its pink asphalt shingles. Macaulay, T, Ghosts of the Truckee River Canyon, available on the Truckee-Donner Historical Society website at https://www.truckeehistory.org/ghosts-of-the-truckee-river-canyon.html viewed 29 July 2022. When he died in 1905, he was capably replaced by Robert Koepke, who ran the operation into the 1920s.
