This was a large winter camp on an early Sunday morning, the only day of "rest" for the loggers. On other days, there would be much activity before dawn in preparation for the day's work, and the fresh snow would show more "wear". Photograph provided by  the Oconto County WIGenWeb Project archives. 
 
 

The first camp I ever slept in was on Archibald Lake, and was typical of those times. The buildings were all built of logs, the sleeping camp 30 feet square, the roof covered with Cedar or Pine shakes (split shingles, each about three feet long), the floor of logs hewed to a degree of flatness; the bunks built of wood, about four feet by six feet, in two decks, usually built with head to the West and feet toward the middle of the room. There was one skylight, which served as ventilator, and one window at one end of the room where the sink and tin Wash basins were. The supply of towels was usually limited and after the crew had used them were very wet and dirty. There was a family comb, but no tooth brush. The walls were six logs high, and it was necessary to stoop to go through the door. Around the stove were suspended poles on which the wet socks were hung to dry at night, and the shoepacs or rubbers were placed on the floor around the stove. There were no opportunities to wash except the face and hands, from Fall till Spring. In fact, they told me that it was dangerous to bathe in the winter time, as it opened the pores of the skin and caused colds and pneumonia. 

A barrel stood by the stove, connected by an iron pipe, closed at the end in the stove and open In the barrel, and the barrel was kept full of water, and was kept hot whenever there was a fire in the stove. When all the crew, usually forty men to a camp of that size, got to smoking "Peerless," and the wet socks began to dry, the atmosphere was thick and unpalatable. I often got up and walked out into the frosty air to get a breath. 

The bedding consisted of straw or hay in the bunks, and two or three blankets and a heavy quilt. On very cold nights a fire was kept up all night. 

The Cook Camp was a similar building, with a "midway" ten feet wide, roofed over between the two buildings, where barreled beef, pork, lard and other supplies were stored. The Cook Camp had more windows and usually was clean and attractive, with bright tin dishes, long tables, and benches. The cook and cookees had beds in one end of the Cook Camp. Later on the foreman got to building a separate "office" for themselves and the clerk and the scaler.

The bans, or "hovels," were built in similar style to the sleeping camp, but usually longer, depending upon the number of teams to be stabled. Each stall was ten feet wide, so a forty foot building held four teams on a side, or eight teams In each building. 

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In later years the camps began to be roofed with lumber and tar paper, then to be built of lumber and covered with paper. They were higher, better lighted, and ventilated, with iron bedsteads (usually double deckers), and there were several buildings instead of one sleeping camp. In some camps the teamsters were a little hightoned and insisted on a camp of their own. Some of the lumberjacks called themselves "white men" and would not bunk in the same room with Polacks, Finns, Russians, Montenegrins, and other foreigners. To tell the truth I never saw the men take any interest in a bath-house, except the Finns. They built a building and heated stones very hot and poured water on them, making a steam which filled the room, then stripped and ran into the steam room and got a good sweat, and then ran outside and rolled in the Snow. It made them clean and healthy. 

The food was plentiful, and usually good. When I was first on the scene the bill-of-fare was bean or pea soup (very good after a cold day), salt pork, salt beef, baked beans, potatoes, cabbage, beets, onions, carrots, dried apples, peaches, apricots, and prunes, bread, cookies, doughnuts, pies, tea, and coffee. Later the meat was mostly fresh beef and pork, sausage, bacon, and in warm weather ham; and the vegetables included all kinds of canned goods, as well as canned fruit of all sorts. The way of serving was not attractive. The dishes of all sorts were piled on the table, before the men came in, and they helped themselves to whatever they chose. One morning I went in to breakfast at 5:30 (the usual breakfast hour), and next to me sat a man who helped himself first to a large amount of salt pork and gravy, then potatoes, then a piece of pie and then poured syrup over it all, and ate it with gusto. I left without eating anything. 

It has always been an unwritten law of the cook camp that no talking is allowed at table. The only reason I ever heard given was that there were so many languages that it would make a Babel of tongues; but I think the real reason was that the cooks wanted to hurry them through their meals as fast as possible, and get rid of them. 

One night I went into a Camp on the Ontonagon River, which we had just taken over from a jobber. Most of the men were strangers to me, but there were a few of our own men from Oconto. I happened to sit next to a man I knew, and spoke to him. He asked how everybody in Oconto was, when the cook- who did not know me -  flew at me and told me very emphatically that no talking was allowed. The man who know me had a good laugh at my expense, but I afterward apologized to the cook for my infraction of the rules. 

The men who came to Oconto in the early days were largely French Canadians, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, and "Blue Noses" from Novia (Nova) Scotia. There was, of course, a scattering of Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania loggers and lumbermen. 

Our own crew, while a mixture of all nationalities, was composed largely of Germans and Scandinavians, while our neighbors, the Oconto Company, had a large proportion of French and Irish. As time went on a large number of Poles came to Oconto and Marinette Counties, and it is surprising to see the number of Polish names among our farmers at the present time. 

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