From the 1800s through the early 20th century, cook shacks like this one accompanied the flotilla of flat-bottomed, raft-like boats carrying men and horses working the log drives on the Connecticut River. Like a chuck wagon, these floating kitchens provided cooks (often young men or boys) with food storage and stoves to provide meals for the crews of 60 to 70 log drivers along the way.

In this photograph the cook appears to be drying the dishes at one end of the boat (on a box which might be his “icebox”) while log drivers are shaving and washing up at the other end. The log drivers slept on shore in tents pitched near the cook shack. Note the poles stored on the walls above the shack’s window. These were used to raft the shack up and down the river to points where the men were working. The cook shacks would have to be pulled by teams of horses around any waterfalls. The canoe moored to the cook shack would have been used by the log drivers to reach the cook shack or camp, or go to taverns along the river.