GET A BASKET

Ready for a trip to the grocer in town or for a picnic, an old Burlington "Hawkeye Refrigerator Basket" made by the Burlington Basket Company of Burlington, Iowa  makes a nice addition to my 1928 Indian 101 Scout (DGP147).The company has made baskets like this since 1888. In 1928, the year of my 101, the original factory burnt down. They rebuilt and continued production. This basket may even be date correct for this Scout.

It goes fishing too.

It stays in place with just two home-made buckle straps. With the straps tucked under the front and rear handle ends, the basket can not go forward or backward.

Just loosening the rear strap allows me to push the strap forward enough to open one of the basket's two lids for easy, fast access.

These baskets were lined with tinned sheet steel and insulated with  a layer of felted animal hair and asbestos. Some include a removable, lidded ice container to keep the water of melted ice from your goods.

These "refrigerator baskets" were made in a very wide range of sizes and decorations. The brown one on the back of my 101 measures 10 in. high and has a hinged double lid 20 in. in overall length and 12 in. wide. This is one of the smaller models and such seem best suited to a small Scout.

Hawkeye Refrigerator Baskets from many different years and in many different models are plentiful for sale on eBay. However, the smaller models, such as my brown one, are the hardest to find.