An almost insatiable demand for lumber was one of the consequences of rapid population growth on the Prairies. Agriculture, the region's primary industry, employed by far the largest number of prairie workers, but the northern lumber camps provided a much needed source of employment in the winter after farm and railway work was finished.
This photo, taken around 1903, shows the cookhouse interior and kitchen staff of a lumber camp in northern Saskatchewan. The lumber camp environment was typically crude, rough and dangerous; to keep a semblance of order, a military approach was adopted by the operators of some lumber camps who were well aware that their employees could not easily find other employment. Note the sign on the rafters here prohibiting talk at the tables. Just as crowded as this cookhouse were the sleeping quarters, which usually consisted of log buildings crammed with bunk beds.
