The Samoa Cookhouse is a historic restaurant in

Samoa, California Samoa (formerly Brownsville) is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California. It is located northwest of Eureka, at an elevation of 23 feet (7 m). Samoa is located in the northern peninsula of Humboldt Bay and is the site of the Sam ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is the last

lumber camp A logging camp (or lumber camp) is a transitory work site used in the logging industry. Before the second half of the 20th century, these camps were the primary place where lumberjacks would live and work to fell trees in a particular area. Many ...

-style

cookhouse 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, cookho ...

in the American

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

Background

Originally it was a dining facility for the employees working the mills for the

Vance Lumber Company Vance may refer to: Locations United States *Vance, Alabama, a town *Vance Township, Vermilion County, Illinois *Vance, Mississippi, an unincorporated community *Vance, Nebraska, an unincorporated community *Vance County, North Carolina * Vance, ...

and opened in 1893. The

opened to the public in the 1960s and serves "lumber camp style", or family style, meals at long communal tables. The building also houses a museum with artifacts and images that focus on logging and "maritime industry" history. The building is large enough to seat five hundred workers and to make cleaning the floors more efficient there were holes drilled into the floor with a grate to act as drainage for water rather than mopping. The second floor of the building functioned as a dormitory for the waitresses. Waitresses were required to be single during the period when the Cookhouse served only company workers, were paid $30 a month, and worked seven days a week. The dormitory has a curfew and was locked at night and the women were not allowed to date on the weekdays. There was, however, a secret passageway that led to the kitchen that waitresses used to leave the dormitory at night.

References

External links

*{{official, https://www.samoacookhouse.net Restaurants in California Buildings and structures in Humboldt County, California 1893 establishments in California Company stores in the United States Restaurants established in 1893