Article

Shanty

Published Online March 1, 2006

Last Edited July 24, 2015

A shanty is a winter lumber camp. The term is derived from the French Canadian word for lumber camp, "chantier."
Shanty
A lumbermen's shanty in Quebec, c. 1879 (photo by Alexander Henderson, courtesy Library and Archives Canada/PA-149706).
Lumber Camp, 19th Century
This camp shows various activities such as sawing logs and chopping firewood as well as the horses and snowshoes essential for winter transportation (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/PA-112117).
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A shanty is a winter lumber camp. The term is derived from the French Canadian word for lumber camp, "chantier." Early camps were simple, made of notched pine or spruce logs with a flat roof of rough shingles or bark and poles. By the 1840s larger "camboose" shanties could accommodate over 40 men in their 110 or 140 m2. The central fire, with its large open chimney for light and ventilation was not replaced by the stove until late in the century. Men slept fully clothed in bunk beds of hay or boughs. Cooking facilities, the foreman's office, barrels of wash water and grindstones occupied much of the remaining space.

See also Timber trade history.