Above Ice House Road

No doubt, John McFarland Pearson saw the same view in 1852 that Phil and Jane Reedy got today from above Ice House Road. Only, Pearson was probably stopping to catch his breath when he did.

You see, Scotsman John McFarland Pearson made his living during the California gold rush mining ice from Sierra Nevada lakes and the American River, then hauling it down to Placerville along “Ice House Road” to be stored in a tunnel behind Pearson’s Soda Works, an imposing stone cold-storage structure with a tunnel carved into a granite mountain behind it. Inside the tunnel, Pearson stored ice, butter, meat and beverages.

Indeed, Pearson’s cream soda was declared in 1884 to be “the best in the United States,” but it wasn’t soft drinks that made Pearson one of the most popular men in the gold mining center of Placerville.

He also “dealt in wines, liquors and imported English ales and porter, as well as being the local agent for Wielands, Enterprise and Pabst beers,” read the Soda Works’ National Register of Historic Places nomination.

In time, John McFarland Pearson became one of Placerville’s most influential and successful residents, not by searching for gold, but for cutting ice and putting it to use.

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• Ice House Road (5,390′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!