The Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve protects land once home to the Princeton Ice Company, a site now designated on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Princeton Ice Company harvested ice from a man-made pond for five decades, delivering blocks of valuable ice to Princeton homes and businesses by wagon before the era of electric refrigeration. The operation used impressive ice harvesting equipment, including an elevator conveyor belt system to move the blocks of ice to ice houses. During an award-winning historic rehabilitation of the ice pond dams in 2013, interpretive signage was installed at the lake to share the history of this essential local business. Enjoy insights from local historians Clifford Zink and Wanda Gunning together with images from HSP’s collection.
The Mountain Lakes Open Space area consists of nine miles of hiking and biking trails in 400 acres of protected open space and farmland. More information and trail maps are available through the New Jersey Trails Association here.
30 Mountain Avenue
Princeton, NJ 08540
