cookhouse
{{short description|Small building where cooking takes place}}
{{otheruse|Cook House (disambiguation){{!}}Cook House}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
File:Mystery Mine cookhouse, Monte Cristo, Washington, ca. 1894.jpg
A cookhouse is a small building where cooking takes place. Often found at remote work camps, they complemented the bunkhouse and were usually found on ranches that employed cowboys, or loggers in a logging camp. Prior to the 20th century, cookhouses were a feature of some private residences where the kitchen was a separate building so the heat and smoke from cooking was kept away from the main residential building.
Types of cookhouses
In North America, cookhouses were a standard feature of remote work sites, as the working men (e.g. cowboys, loggers, miners, etc.) needed large amounts of food for the strenuous work they performed.{{cite web | first = Candace | last = Kanes | url = https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/1436/page/2104/display?use_mmn=1 | title = Cooks and Cookees: Lumber Camp Legends | work = mainememory.net | access-date = February 6, 2021 | archive-date = May 22, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200522135614/https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/1436/page/2104/display?use_mmn=1 | url-status = live }}{{cite web |title=Old Pitchfork Cook House to Be Restored at National Ranching Heritage Center |url=https://www.kcbd.com/story/7025811/old-pitchfork-cook-house-to-be-restored-at-national-ranching-heritage-center |website=KCBD |date=2007-09-04 |access-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213021940/https://www.kcbd.com/story/7025811/old-pitchfork-cook-house-to-be-restored-at-national-ranching-heritage-center/ |url-status=live }} In logging camps, cooks were important to the morale of the workers. In some cases, workers would follow a cook to the camp where they were working each season.{{Cite web |title=Logging Camps: The Early Years |url=https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/history/logging-camps.html |website=Minnesota DNR |access-date=February 6, 2021 |archive-date=September 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927165405/https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/history/logging-camps.html |url-status=live }} The cookhouse was one of the key buildings at any work site, along with the bunkhouse and tool shed.{{cite web | url = http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/kromona-mine.html | title = Kromona Mine | year = 2015 | website = ghosttownsofwashington.com | access-date = 2015-10-16 | archive-date = July 17, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200717231655/http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/kromona-mine.html | url-status = live }}
The use of a cookhouse was not limited to resource extraction industries. Travelling circuses also use a style of cookhouse to feed their workers and performers.{{cite web | url = http://classic.circushistory.org/Thayer/Thayer1d.htm | title = The First Cookhouse | first = Stuart | last = Thayer | work = American Circus Anthology, Essays of the Early Years | editor = William L. Slout | access-date = February 25, 2021 | archive-date = July 24, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200724201942/https://classic.circushistory.org/Thayer/Thayer1d.htm | url-status = live }} In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps worked in many remote areas, like the Malheur National Forest in the Ochoco Mountains of eastern Oregon. The Allison Ranger Station was expanded with two ranger residences, a fire warehouse, a gas house, a garage, a generator shed, and a cookhouse.{{cite web | url = http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/toolbox/ppt_html/allison/index.htm | title = Value Analysis presentation – Allison Ranger Station | work = Ochoco National Forest | publisher = United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture | location = Prineville, Oregon | date = November 2001 | access-date = February 25, 2021 | archive-date = June 1, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170601053856/https://www.fs.fed.us/eng/toolbox/ppt_html/allison/index.htm | url-status = live }} Large institutions, like Ireland's Sligo Gaol, also had a cookhouse to serve the needs of the institution.{{Cite web |last=Ridley |first=Chris |title=Sligo Gaol (Prison) |url=http://www.sligotown.net/sligo-gaol.shtml |website=sligotown.net |access-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-date=November 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125185151/https://www.sligotown.net/sligo-gaol.shtml/ |url-status=live }}
A wannigan was a kitchen built on a raft which followed the log drivers down the river, both serving meals{{cite web|title=Log Drives (and River Pigs)|url=http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/fhc/logdrives.html|work=Forest History Center|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|access-date=2012-04-07}} and providing tents and blankets for the night if no better accommodations were available.{{cite book|last=Rosholt|first=Malcolm|title=Lumbermen on the Chippewa - The Drive|year=1982|publisher=Rosholt House|location=Rosholt, Wisconsin|isbn=0-910417-00-8|pages=63–64|url=http://www.scls.lib.wi.us/mcm/rosholt/lumbermen-on-the-chippewa/lumbchip/images/00000004.pdf}}
=Residential usage=
In the Southern United States, antebellum plantations, like the Archibald Smith Plantation or the Sion Hill estate, had a cookhouse separate from the main house{{cite web | url = http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/13135 | title = Archibald Smith Plantation Home | work = MuseumsUSA | access-date = February 25, 2021 | archive-date = August 20, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160820012457/http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/13135 | url-status = live }} to keep the main house from overheating. An example is the Condit Family house in New Jersey which had an unattached cookhouse.{{cite web |title=Livingston's Force Homestead and Condit Family Cookhouse Open Sunday, Oct. 13 |url=https://www.tapinto.net/towns/livingston/sections/arts-and-entertainment/articles/livingston-s-force-homestead-and-condit-family-cookhouse-open-sunday-oct-13 |website=Livingston |publisher=tapinto.net |date=2019-10-12}}
In Iran, a common feature in homes prior to the 20th century was to have a cookhouse separate from the residence. With time and newer technologies this has changed with the kitchen being brought into the house.{{Cite journal |last1=Sobouti |first1=Hooman |url=https://acikerisim.iku.edu.tr/handle/11413/1545 |title=The Evolution Of The Cookhouse To The Kitchen |last2=Ghasemi |first2=Ali |date=July 2016 |journal=The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication |access-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-date=September 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928071540/https://acikerisim.iku.edu.tr/handle/11413/1545 |url-status=live|pages=605–613|doi=10.7456/1060JSE/027 |doi-access=free|volume=6|issue=July Special Edition}}
=Military usage=
A military version of the cookhouse is the galley, the compartment of a ship, train, or aircraft where food is cooked and prepared for consumption in the mess.{{Cite web|url=https://ussslater.org/tour/decks/main/galley/galley.html|title=Galley|website=ussslater.org|access-date=2020-03-03|archive-date=March 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303191642/https://ussslater.org/tour/decks/main/galley/galley.html|url-status=live}} In the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, {{convert|170|km}} north of Port Elizabeth, the town of Cookhouse may have gotten its name from a small stone house used for shelter and cooking by troops camping on the bank of the Great Fish River.{{cite book |last=Raper|first=P. E. |title=Dictionary of Southern African Place Names |url= https://archive.org/stream/DictionaryOfSouthernAfricanPlaceNames/SaPlaceNames#page/n121/mode/2up|year=1989|publisher=Jonathan Ball Publishers|isbn=978-0-947464-04-2|page=121|via=Internet Archive}}
Gallery
File:Cookhouse interior, unidentified logging camp, Pacific Northwest, ca 1900 (INDOCC 192).jpg|Cookhouse interior, unidentified logging camp, Pacific Northwest, circa 1900
File:Totara Estate, Mens Quarters & Cookhouse.jpg|Men's quarters and cookhouse at Totara Estate
File:The Ordnance Chief Officer's Cookhouse, Henriville, Boulogne (24703850058).jpg|The Ordnance Chief Officer's Cookhouse, Henriville, Boulogne, circa 1917
File:NJ Cumberland County Captain Edward Compton House 0005.jpg|Reconstructed cookhouse at the Captain Edward Compton House
File:Lumber jacks, 1917 - 15664637774.jpg|Canadian lumberjacks in 1917, photo by Reuben Sallows
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{Cite journal|last=Conlin |first=Joseph R. |url=https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Conlin.pdf |title=Old Boy, Did You Get Enough of Pie? A Social History of Food in Logging Camps |date=October 1979 |journal=Journal of Forest History |doi=10.2307/4004469|jstor=4004469|volume=23|issue=4 |pages=164–185 }}