In the late1950's a man named Omar Knedlik owned a Dairy Queen in Coffeyville, Kansas. He didn't have a soda fountain in the store so he took bottles of soda and put them in the freezer. He kept them in the freezer until the soda in the bottles became frozen. He served this frozen drink to his customers and they loved it!

He thought it would be great if there was a machine to make this unique frozen drink and began to build the machine himself. It took five years for Mr. Knedlik to build the first ICEE® machine. When he finally finished, he had just what he dreamed of, a machine that could pour a frozen, carbonated drink. By the mid 60's, about 300 ICEE® machines had been manufactured.