Rolling With the Changes. How We Survived Before Plows.

Theses days when it snows, it's certainly inconvenient and at times even unsafe, but back in the oldy-timey days, it was a much more of a pain in the neck. There was no real "removal" of the snow. It was pretty much like pushing snowy peas around Bangor's plate.

I was surfing the internet, and started reading a bit about snow rollers as way of clearing the roads. Although, they technically didn't clear the roads, so much as squash the snow down as flat as possible. You can imagine over the course of the winter, what kind of problems this would cause. Feet of packed snow covered the streets, making every day life even harder.

Bangor was no stranger to rolling snow for road clearing. In fact Cole Transportation Museum has at least one in their collection.

I verified this by finding this sweet video about one they found and restored. It also has great photos within the video that show how it worked. Basically, a team of horses pulled the giant wheel behind them, and the depth and density of the snow would dictate how many horses it required to pack the snow down.

But why listen to me when you can watch this short, yet highly informative, video. It's a solid glimpse into Bangor and Maine's history in general. Check it out!