Camp 10’s Family Row

Camp 10, 1950. The family cabins can be barely seen in the background.

Not all logging camps were created equal. Each lumber company had its own policy—some allowed families to stay in logging camps. Both Fruit Growers Supply Company and Lassen Lumber & Box Company allowed families in their respective logging camps.

What was referred to as “family row” at Camp 10 consisted of about ten cabins. As Leonard Uhl who, with his wife Irene and son Richard, lived there in 1943 recalled: “The family cabins were quite a bit larger than the single men’s cabins, and had two rooms. They were equipped with a wood cook stove, a kitchen table, chairs, double bed and a screen and gunny sack evaporation cooler.”  The cooler served as a primitive refrigerator. The families cooked their own meals. Except for rare occasions, only employees were allowed to eat in the cookhouse. Employees with families had the choice of eating at home or at the cookhouse.

Camp 10, Cookhouse, December 15, 1950.

Since the families were not allowed to eat the in cookhouse, Fruit Growers made accommodations for them to obtain groceries and such. As Marilyn Denton Holmes recalls from her childhood at Camp 10 during the 1930s; “There was no store at Camp, but a commissary where we could get our mail and supplies that a daily Company owned bus, would bring back to Camp. My Mother would send a list with the driver and he would do the shopping and bring the order back to Camp.”

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