Thank you all for the favorable comments on the history of logging.
Life was hard for the loggers. They lived in the logging camps for six days a week. They were housed in crudely build cabins approximately 16 to 18 feet long and about 8 feet wide with a wall dividing each cabin. The cabins were built on skids made out of logs which enabled them to be moved easily from layout to layout. Each section of the cabin was equipped with a metal cot, and mattress and also contained an oval-shaped wood stove used for heating and drying sweaty clothes. The loggers weren't too particular about personal hygiene. For light, they had a kerosene lamp on a box. The men ate in a "cookhouse" run by Chinese cooks, who were hired by the logging company. There were usually three or four cooks in each camp. These cooks were a very important part of the life in a logging camp.
The owners knew that men, who worked very hard for 12 hours a day, had to be fed high quality, calorie laden meals. The food, served at the camps, was high protein and high fat which enable the men to maintain a high energy level. They didn't eat the traditional Chinese foods because there was not enough substance in them and the loggers would be hungry within one to two hours.
For entertainment, on occasions, the loggers would play pranks on the Chinese cooks. This brings to mind a true story, related by a historian who often told this story.
The loggers, in one camp, would raid the cooks' clothes lines in back of the cookhouse. They would tie the clothes in really tight knots making them difficult to undo. The cooks never complained, or got angry, they just kept on smiling and bowing as is the Chinese custom. This continued for some time and finally the loggers started feeling bad about these pranks. They decided to tell the cooks that they were going to stop tying their clothes in knots. The cooks said that was "velly" nice and added that they would then stop peeing in the soup.
rama in the Nortwest Timber Country (paperback1985) author Ralph W. Andrews
