At the Lycoming County Fair, we displayed this mystery artifact. It is an ice chisel, used for chipping slivers of ice of a block of ice. Congratulations, Eric Keener, for having the first right answer out of the box. He wins a $20 gift certificate to Otto’s Book Store!!!
We had a bunch of right answers. As long as it had the word ‘ice’ in it, we accepted it as correct. Those artifact aficionados are:
Bruce Bedford, “Ice pick”, Greg Beyer, “Ice Pick”, Steve Campbell, “ice scraper”, Megan Coleman, “Ice Chipper or gripper”, Jill Davenport, “Ice Breaker for the Lumber Industry”, Darcy Fry, “Ice scraper”, Ted Fry, “Ice chipper”, Dave Hartman, “Tool used to break ice off of large blocks of ice”, Linda Holland “an ice chipper”, Joan Knight, “ice cutter”, Janet Marquardt, “ice fork for moving ice”, Alan Metzger, “Ice Chipper Breaker”, Katie Miller, “a device to chip ice away from a block of ice”, Wayne Ripke, “ice carver”, Bill Shade, “ice chopper”, Tom Shaner, “Ice Chipper/Scraper (Block ice)”, Karen Sones, “Ice Sculpting”. Lance Van Auken, “Ice Scraper” and Heather Walter, “ice pick- to break apart ice from the river”.
But, we really appreciate the fact that people took the time to think about the artifact and guess. A bunch of variant answers were received and they are listed below:
A 1930's graden hoe’s, Agricultural use, Animal Fur cleaner, Back Scratcher, Bark stripper, Barrel opener, Base puller, Bottle opener, Bulb planter, Carding sheep wool, Cattle prod, Cheese cutter, Chiseling wood, Chochle (okay, we’re not sure what this is, but we don’t think it is right!), chopper, Clam digger, Clay chisel or wood chisel, Cleat cleaner, Comb, Comb Horse’s hair, Comb sheep, Cotton picker, Cotton plant cotton seed remover, Cotton/seed separator, Crop digging tool, Crop planter, Dandelion Digger, Dandelion or weed tool, De-barking tool, Digging tool, Fat scrapper for tanning hides, Fileter and tenderizer, Fish gig, Fishing, Flax tool- crushes it and combs it out, For cutting wool from sheep, For mashed potatoes, Fork, Frog gigger, Fur scraping to clean hides, Gardening hoe, Gardening rake, Gardening tool, Gardening tool that also kills ants if you hit them with the rounded , nd, Gathering tool, Giant fork, Goat pick, Grain sheaf string cutter, Ground corn- hand rake, Ground working tool, Hair comb, LOL!, Harvesting, Horse tail comb, I think it is a kind of spatula, I think this is a hare berosh, Implement for separating woolen fibers, Individual planting trowel, It was used to clean or straighten fibers of cotton or wool, Kitchen utensil to stir ground beef, Leather working tool, Meat fork, Meat Tenderizer, metal, Mini rake, Nail puller similar to end of hammer, Pancake turner, Perforating cloth, Pie crust prep utensil, Planting tool, Potato digger, Potatoe fork, Potatoe masher, Potato scraper, Pottery/plate engraver, Primitive Back Scratcher, Pry to open chests, Rake, Salad fork from back in the days to scoop salad, Scoop to lift dandelion or deep weed, Scoring/ marking trees, Serving fork, Sheep comb, Sheep hair pick, Sheep shearer, Shovel, Slaw cutter, Small hoe, Soil aerator, Some sort of Draw knife for peeling bark off, Something for silk mill, Something to farm with, Something used to toss salad, Something you used to dig, Spork [for those of us who didn’t know, a combination spoon and fork], Spud peeler used in removing bark for use in tanning Leather, Tanning tool, Tenderizer, Thing to unstick junk stuck in a fireplace grate, Tile cutter, To dig up flower bulbles [sic], To Dig out Weeds?, Tool for carding wool or for a cobbler, Tool for cleaning , hide, Tool for darning & combing wool to spin, Tool for hoof cleaning, Tool for removing tree bark, Tool for skinning, Tool to remove , corn from the cob, “A trofey”, Upholstery tool, Used to pull or push material on a loom, Weed puller for a garden, Wood carver, Wood carving tool, Wood turning chisel, Woodworking tool to put grooves, Wool comb, Wool puller, Wool shearer tool, and Yarn spinning instrument.
And young Marcus scored a hit with his answer. He apparently did not notice the artifact in the case, but read our brochure, because his answer was, “I know/think this is: Non-profit educational museum.” And he is so right! Thank you for participating in this Artifact Quiz!! We had 198 guesses. See you next year at the Lycoming County Fair!