History & local legend
Before mechanical refrigeration, workers harvested ice from Harveys Lake in Luzerne County, using horses to pull plows across the frozen surface. A local legend says a team broke through near Alderson and sank with its sled into the deep water.
The tale claimed that the lake’s cold had preserved both horses as they fell. On stormy winter evenings, residents also told of hearing a team galloping across the ice. The lost horses became one of the lake’s most persistent stories.
Historian F. Charles Petrillo recorded an effort to find them. In the 1950s, a diver known as Bucky Kelly systematically searched the bottom for the sled and remains. Fine sediment clouded the water and obscured his view; he never located the legendary team.
Sources
- Alan K. Stout, Times Leader, Tale of the fate of ghostly team of horses is one legend of the lake (November 30, 1997)
- F. Charles Petrillo, The Legend of the Lost Horses, local oral history and diver’s search
- F. Charles Petrillo, The Ice Cutting Industry on Harvey’s Lake
- Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Harveys Lake fishery and public access
- Harveys Lake waterbody, OpenStreetMap way 143169551
