Some parts of upstate New York haven’t seen as much snow this season as they usually do. But when storms come, we rely on snowplows to clear community roads.

As time goes on, snow removal techniques evolve. In the 1800s, for example, many relied on horse-drawn carriages.

"And they're called plows because they mimic the plows that would be used to till the soil," said Robert Searing, curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association.

Snow from wagons would be dumped into a waterway.

The Syracuse Chilled Plow Company opened in 1876 and sold so many plows worldwide that the company’s slogan became “The sun never sets on a Syracuse plow.” Eventually, the company was purchased by John Deere.

"[With] the advent of the automobile in the 1910s, you start to see mechanized plows like on the front of cars. Now you can imagine the cars weren’t very big; they weren’t very powerful," said Searing.

Over time, snow-plowing efforts became organized. Searing said it started as community organizations, which then evolved into municipal services as cities grew.