Many stories have been written, or handed down by word of mouth, regarding the lives of lumberjacks in north-central Pennsylvania. In 2012, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission used the theme The Land of Penn and Plenty. It published an article that first appeared in the Pennsylvania Trail of History Cookbook on feeding the loggers.

When Pennsylvania's lumber industry peaked between 1850 and 1870, the state was the world's largest producer of lumber. Wood was needed for new homes and businesses, ships, firewood to heat homes, and charcoal for iron furnaces. To meet the demand for wood, loggers wielded handheld axes and two-man crosscut saws.

“Lumberjacks had to be well fed, consuming an average of 8,000 calories a day to provide the energy needed to tackle the rigors of hard physical labor, especially during the cold winter months when much of the logging took place. One sound not heard during meals, often only five minutes long, was that of voices. Talking was forbidden at meals, as conversation among such a diverse group of men, living and working in close quarters, often led to fights.

Feeding a large crew of hungry loggers - as many as 75 to 100 in each camp - was quite a challenge for the lumber company cook and his assistants. Breakfast might include eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and coffee or tea. Lunch pails were taken by sled or handcar to the lumberjacks so that they could remain close to the work area and finish quickly.

A hearty dinner generally featured meats, potatoes, Lumber Camp Skillet *, vegetables, breads, and desserts. Loggers coined nicknames for food, including cackleberries (eggs), stovelids (pancakes) *, doorknobs (biscuits), goldfish (canned salmon), gravel (salt), sand (sugar), red lead (ketchup), logging berries (prunes), Murphys (potatoes), slush or blackjack (coffee), and swamp water (tea).”

George Hart ran a lumber camp on Freeman Run, near Austin in Potter County in the late 1800’s. In 1905, Hart sold his logging equipment and moved to the south. He died in Sandy Hook, Mississippi at the age of 102 in 1955.

Hart gave his notes on life in the lumber region, an unpublished biography, to Marie Katherine Nuschke. She was the daughter of Delphis Brisbois, one of seven Brisbois brothers who came to the Freeman Run Valley in Potter County, in 1882, six of whom were engaged in lumbering business.

Mrs. Nuschke authored a book, The Freeman Run Valley. One of the chapters, titled Hicks, Fighters, and Clog Dancers: Early Lumber Camps in Freeman Run Valley, added additional details on food in the lumber camps. “George Hart says that as late as 1888, the food was much the same in all camps, with each camp having a man who specialized in one particular kind of dish. His cook, John J. Lannin, who stayed with him for thirteen years, made baked beans every day in a bean hole back of the camp, and they were delicious. As yet, food in tin cans was not popular, and it was a reflection on the ability of the camp cook to have a pile of empty tin cans near the kitchen. The only vegetable ever served in Hart's camp that came from a tin can was tomatoes. He added, "We had never heard of vitamins or balanced meals in those days. All the men worked fifteen hours each day, ate heartily, and I remember one winter when I gained fifteen pounds, although I lost it when spring came, and I went down the river on a drive."

It was years before the men cooks were replaced by women. By that time, more food was available and different dishes appeared on all camp menus. It was not uncommon to have beefsteak for breakfast besides the customary pancakes and syrup. In a camp for forty to sixty men, it took one hundred pounds of flour for both bread and pastry daily. Pies and puddings were served at all dinners; and, occasionally, on special holidays, bananas and oranges appeared as a special treat. By this time, all vegetables came out of cans. Every jobber knew that a good cook was a necessity. The better the cook, the less trouble he had keeping his men. Although there was little variety from day to day, portions were enormous, and second helpings were always on hand. No man left the table hungry. At no other time in the history of the Freeman Run Valley, have so many different types of men lived together under one roof as were gathered in those lumber camps. It took a good cook and a foreman whose word was law to control the men in each camp and keep them in good condition so that work could progress smoothly at a profit for all concerned.