Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-10
OLD LUMBER CAMPS.
Had Huge Open Fire In the Center
and Hole in Top.
BAKED Beans from the Bean-HoIc We're the
Lumbermen's Chief Delight.

tho present time, compared with half a
.o,,+urv ago. is easier and the men labor
;,o in the woods do not endure hard
hing similar to that period. About so
,oars ago Yankees were the chief workers
IN the lumber industry, but at the present
.i,,e Won will find that the French have
taken their place, simply because at that
.i,re the farmers sons were obliged to
WELD an axe, while now the son of the
husbandman is not familiar to any degree
q professionalism with the woodchopper' s
implement. The Inhabitants of Canada,
,rincipally Quebec who are expert axe
mon have crowded into Maine and are
now found in large numbers in the lum-
her woods of this State.
II was only few days ago that Il Jour
nal reporter had conversation with NJ.
Foop of this city, who is one of the ex-
tonsive lumber merchants Of the upper
,,aters of the Kennebec, and has been en-
,orcd for many years in this business, and
he told of the difference between the old
kind of lumber camp pand the one in vogue
today Say 40 years ago, when the lum-
tor teams and men started for the woods,
they travelled to point say 10 and per-
hans Is miles from where the camp was to
be built and operations to begin. Then
the dense woods made travel slow and the
camp building crew would take some
Cooking utensils with them, perhaps Il
frying-pan and a boiling pot, together with
n little bag of flour, a large piece OF meat
mite an amount of bread, a beanpot, and
nrobably a bushel of beans, as the latter
was the lunberman's delight and chief
means of "muscle tonic. Usually this
crew would consist of about 12 or ID men
and they would start on ahead to construct
thc camp and have everything well in
shane when the forces arrived. Those left
behind would swamp out road and were
not able to get along very fast.
When the camp building crew reached
the spot where the fall and winters opera
tons were to be carried on, the first thing
to do was to clear away n place to erect
camp, which of course was located near
where water could be procured. The camp
was generally about 30 feet square and
had pitched roof that slopcd directly
from che front of the camp to the rear,
and was only about four feet from the
ground at the back. = The sides were of
logs, and to close up the creyiccs, long
strips of cedar were attached and boughs
were compactly padded between posts and
the logs to keep out the cold and make
this little "forest place. as comfortable as
possible
The roof was made of poles and
boughs which were laid crosswise and
every opening securely closed. In the CEN
ter of this lumberman's home was the
huge fire, and the smoke and even the
blaze found exit through hole in the
roof Around the center of the fire were
slabs of slate rock to form sort of box to
keep the fire cased and not allow 1T to
creep over to where some tired lake
swinger" lay upon his back with bare
"foots" toward the waving flames Every
now and then the cook would be seen ap-
preaching the fire with pan of water and
dpper, to drown the flames that had
ignited the roof of the camp, which was
not an unusual occurrence during the
evenings when the men We're drying their
dampened clothes and the slabs of slate
Were covered with pieces of burning fuel.
In those days to furnish the wood for one
OF these camps meant one day OF every
week with yoke of oxen and four men
working ;. adily to yard sufficient
quantity last the coming week. The
wood burned was birch and maple, and
dry spruce and pine for kindling. The
cook cut his own wood after it was hauled
to camp
Around the sides of the camp the men
slept and underneath them were layers OF
boughs, over which the lower spread,
made of blanket material, was placed, and
upon this the 80 or more men in the camp
would stretch out for six hours sleep
pulling over themselves the upper spread
made of the same material, but heavier
But two of these spreads were provided
and these with the great fire in the center
OF the camp, the ''20 degrees below zero
oreeze" was kept at safe distance. In
only cooking utensils at that time were
airying pan, "a baker-sheet, bean pot
and boiling pot. In fact other cooking
ulshes were not needed, as the foods provi-
ucd will indicate The chief food was
baked beans, and everybody has heard OF
ue deliciously prepared baked beans Oh
uhe lumber camps, and it was upon these
uaat the woodsmen received sustenance &c
endure the cold and labor hard every day
The bean hole was very close to the fire
ahd when the beans were prepared ano
placed in the pct with plenty of pork, the
POT was then laid in this bean hole ano
around it were placed hot Goals in argt