# Cookhouse

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{{short description|Small building where cooking takes place}}
{{otheruse|Cook House (disambiguation){{!}}Cook House}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
thumb| Mystery Mine cookhouse, Monte Cristo, Washington, ca. 1894
A '''cookhouse''' is a small building where cooking takes place. Often found at remote work camps, they complemented the [bunkhouse](/source/bunkhouse) and were usually found on [ranch](/source/ranch)es that employed [cowboy](/source/cowboy)s, or [loggers](/source/loggers) in a [logging camp](/source/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. [cowboy](/source/cowboy)s, [loggers](/source/Lumberjack), [miners](/source/miners), etc.) needed large amounts of food for the strenuous work they performed.<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref name="KCBD">{{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](/source/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 }}</ref> In logging camps, [cooks](/source/Cook_(profession)) 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.<ref name="dnr.state.mn.us">{{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 }}</ref> The cookhouse was one of the key buildings at any work site, along with the bunkhouse and [tool shed](/source/tool_shed).<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

The use of a cookhouse was not limited to resource extraction industries. [Travelling circus](/source/Travelling_circus)es also use a style of cookhouse to feed their workers and performers.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> In the 1930s, the [Civilian Conservation Corps](/source/Civilian_Conservation_Corps) worked in many remote areas, like the [Malheur National Forest](/source/Malheur_National_Forest) in the [Ochoco Mountains](/source/Ochoco_Mountains) of eastern [Oregon](/source/Oregon). The [Allison Ranger Station](/source/Allison_Ranger_Station) was expanded with two ranger residences, a fire warehouse, a gas house, a garage, a generator shed, and a cookhouse.<ref name="ONF">{{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 }}</ref> Large institutions, like Ireland's [Sligo Gaol](/source/Sligo_Gaol), also had a cookhouse to serve the needs of the institution.<ref name="Prison History">{{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 }}</ref>

A wannigan was a kitchen built on a raft which followed the [log drivers](/source/Log_driving) down the river,<ref name = The_Drive /> both serving meals<ref>{{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}}</ref> and providing tents and blankets for the night if no better accommodations were available.<ref name = The_Drive>{{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}}</ref>

===Residential usage===
In the [Southern United States](/source/Southern_United_States), antebellum [plantations](/source/Plantation_complexes_in_the_Southern_United_States), like the [Archibald Smith Plantation](/source/Archibald_Smith_Plantation_Home) or the [Sion Hill estate](/source/Sion_Hill_estate), had a cookhouse separate from the main house<ref>{{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 }}</ref> to keep the main house from overheating. An example is the [Condit Family house](/source/Ward%E2%80%93Force_House_and_Condit_Family_Cook_House) in New Jersey which had an unattached cookhouse.<ref name="tapinto">{{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}}</ref>

In [Iran](/source/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.<ref name="Sobouti">{{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}}</ref>

===Military usage===
A military version of the cookhouse is the [galley](/source/galley_(kitchen)), the compartment of a [ship](/source/ship), [train](/source/train), or [aircraft](/source/aircraft) where food is cooked and prepared for consumption in the [mess](/source/mess).<ref>{{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}}</ref> In the [Eastern Cape](/source/Eastern_Cape) province of [South Africa](/source/South_Africa), {{convert|170|km}} north of [Port Elizabeth](/source/Port_Elizabeth), the town of [Cookhouse](/source/Cookhouse_(village)) 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](/source/Great_Fish_River).<ref name="Raper1989">{{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](/source/Internet_Archive)}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Cookhouse interior, unidentified logging camp, Pacific Northwest, ca 1900 (INDOCC 192).jpg|Cookhouse interior, unidentified [logging camp](/source/logging_camp), [Pacific Northwest](/source/Pacific_Northwest), circa 1900
File:Totara Estate, Mens Quarters & Cookhouse.jpg|Men's quarters and cookhouse at [Totara Estate](/source/Totara_Estate)<!-- {{ill|Totara Estate|commons:category}} (New Zealand), Mens Quarters & Cookhouse--->
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](/source/Captain_Edward_Compton_House)
File:Lumber jacks, 1917 - 15664637774.jpg|Canadian lumberjacks in 1917, photo by [Reuben Sallows](/source/Reuben_R._Sallows)
</gallery>

==See also==
* [Chuckwagon](/source/Chuckwagon)
* [Field kitchen](/source/Field_kitchen)
* [Montana's Cookhouse](/source/Montana's_Cookhouse)
* [Samoa Cookhouse](/source/Samoa_Cookhouse)
* [Crew car](/source/Crew_car), [Troop kitchen](/source/Troop_kitchen)

==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 }}

==External links==
*{{wiktionary-inline|cookhouse}}
Category:Kitchen
Category:Building types

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cookhouse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookhouse) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookhouse?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.