Camp Kitchen, photograph by Isaac Simpson, ca. 1910. Maine State Museum. Gift of Jim Thompson, 2017.24.1424.
Camp Kitchen, photograph by Isaac Simpson, ca. 1910. Maine State Museum. Gift of Jim Thompson, 2017.24.1424.
Until the 1870s, life in logging camps resembled the rugged existence of early pioneers. Cooks made food over open fires. Meals consisted mostly of beans, some pork, molasses, and tea. From this experience came the phrase, "beans twenty-one times a week."
By 1910 the Maine Department of Labor boasted that lumber company cooks fed the men fresh meat, vegetables, dried fruit, and other foods of "excellent quality." As seen in this photograph, camp kitchens modernized with cookstoves and equipment to cook a wider variety of foods.