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By Tim Ruzek

On a January 1908 evening, about 300 people laced up skates and stepped onto the frozen Cedar River on the edge of downtown Austin.

As they skated, a band wearing fur coats, caps and gloves played music from a corner of a rink set up on the river.

“Every light was turned on and the strains of the band, combined with the laughter of the crowd, made the place one of pleasure and enjoyment,” wrote the Austin Daily Herald.

Local businessman Harry Furtney created the rink a few years earlier on part of the Cedar just north of where Main Street ended. Fencing allowed him to collect admission.

“Skaters who had not been out for years were down to enjoy themselves,” the Herald wrote. “A great many who came to skate spent the time in sitting down and getting up.”

At least since the 1860s, locals flocked to the Cedar during winter to skate on the downtown dam’s backwaters, sometimes inside a fenced rink like the 1876-77 season. That area was much different, with river channels and islands.

In 1867, the Mower County Register reported Austin’s skating season had started and “every day can be seen persons of all ages enjoying this most healthful of exercises.”

“The Cedar River, with the aid of the ice king, furnishes us with skating rinks that even Chicago or St. Paul might envy. We know, for we have been there on skates, too,” the Register wrote.

In the late 1800s, Austin newspapers frequently reported on ice-skating conditions, especially at Lake Lincoln, the name used in the 1890s and early 1900s for the stretch upstream of the dam.

Ice skating seemed to grow in popularity by the 1890s based on articles and events offering live music or an illuminated rink.

“The skating rinks and toboggan slides were in good order, and everything was well lighted up by electric lights,” the Mower County Transcript wrote in the 1890s. “There was just enough ozone in the air to put everyone in good spirits.”

George A. Hormel, founder of Hormel Foods, wrote in his autobiography, “The Open Road,” about spending a Sunday afternoon skating with his fiancée Lillian at Lake Lincoln a day before opening his plant next to the river.

“At sundown, we crossed the river for her first inspection of the plant,” Hormel wrote. “It was a thrilling moment.”

Furtney’s rink opened for the 1905-06 season, where Main Street ended.

At the time, locals enjoyed ice skating so much that a few Herald articles indicated Californians likely were envious.

“Austinites who are in California may enjoy looking at roses in winter but no one could wish to look on a prettier winter picture than Lake Lincoln with hundreds of boys and girls gliding over its glassy surface,” the Herald wrote.

Another article stated, “Our California friends will probably turn green with envy when they learn that the old Cedar is frozen and black with skaters, who look cozy and warm in furs and mittens. You can’t have our cake and eat it.”

In December 1905, Furtney and Albert Hilker, who ran a building-moving business together, built a warming house on the banks of the Cedar, where North Main ended for a skating rink. The city maintained a rink at the same site the previous winter.

Furtney and Hilker vowed to keep good ice quality at the rink lit up nightly by two electric arc lamps.

After two seasons in business, Furtney reopened the rink for the 1907-08 season with a toboggan slide nearby that dumped onto the river.

That season, Furtney asked police to help with a small boy who kept skating without paying the rink’s 10-cent fee. People without skates could enter for free but the boy pushed skates under a fence to put on inside.

At times, Furtney also provided a band for skaters.

“There will be fun for all gliding over the ice to the music of the band or zipping down the slide at lightning speed,” the Herald wrote in January 1908. “Mr. Furtney has gone to considerable expense to give our young people an enjoyable place for healthy exercise, and he should receive a liberal patronage.”

For the 1908–09 season, Furtney partnered with Dan Guinney to open the rink, with season tickets offered for the first time.

“This will ensure the lovers of the sport a fine place where they may enjoy this winter pastime and also receive courteous treatment and the best of service,” the Herald wrote.

Austin’s historic June 1908 flood, however, washed Furtney’s warming house more than 1,000 feet downstream, where it remained until December when Furtney, Guinney and many boys pushed the house onto ice to slide back.

But their rink struggled with skaters in 1908–09.

“We have been at quite an expense in keeping the skating rink open this winter,” Furtney and Guinney wrote Jan. 19, 1909, in the Herald, “and the lack of interest and small attendance by those holding season tickets leads us to believe that our efforts are no longer appreciated.”

They promised one more week of skating to see if season ticketholders cared.

It was the last winter for Furtney’s rink. That summer, Furtney moved to Rochester and later to Arizona.

Part 2 next week…