One winter night in 1945, Al Rossi was clearing snow off of Lake Mansfield in Massachusetts. The 1938 International, freighted with a load of sand for traction, plus a heavy plow blade to scrape the surface, broke through the ice
Weeks passed with the truck, plow, and its load of sand beneath the ice. Eventually, the truck was offered for sale. Three hundred dollars was the price, with the condition that the buyer had to haul it up from Lake Mansfield's inky depths. Bob Hebert's father was the intrepid buyer. "On the day he planned to bring it up, I was allowed to skip school and accompany him," says Bob. He was ten years old at the time. "I can remember looking through the ice and seeing the truck, driver's side up, and wondering how he'd ever get it out." Bob's father and several assistants built a gantry on skids and located it on the ice, above the sunken rig. The plow frame was close enough to the surface that the men could attach the chains from the lake surface. A network of chainfalls attached to the cross beam hauled the truck skyward. Once it breached the hole in the ice, they removed the plow frame, and eventually, the rest of the truck broke through. From ther...