Oliver C. Cope built this ice house, a place to store the harvested winter ice from Carp Lake, to serve his hotel, dining hall, and other businesses in the warm months. Carp Lake is a small town seven miles south of Mackinaw City on US-31. The icehouse supplied ice for:

• Iceboxes

• Making ice cream

• Children to suck on a hot summer day

It was replaced by electric refrigeration in the late 1940s.