The first mess hall and bunkhouse were built at Treadwell in 1883. The Treadwell boarding house, or 300-man dining hall, was the largest dining hall on the Pacific coast. Meals were prepared in a modern kitchen. A bakery was added in 1902. Japanese and Filipino waiters served hearty meals to the miners who sat at long tables covered with white oilcloth. Beginning in 1910, miners worked 8-hour shifts. The dining hall was open 24 hours a day serving breakfast and a main meal – either at noon or midnight. Lunches were packed and sent down the # 2 shaft for miners working underground.
In a syndicated article by Frederic J. Haskin in the Los Angeles Herald on March 22, 1910, this writer noted that, “The company store, butcher shop and cook houses are large departments because the firm boards its men. It is no small undertaking to feed all these robust miners. The butchers in the company shop cut up three beeves every day, besides quantities of fish, pork and mutton. It takes 6,000 pancakes to go round in the morning, and four barrels of flour are made into 3,800 biscuits every day. Another daily ration is 60 pounds of coffee and 175 pounds of butter. The number of eggs used daily is 2,300.”
The Albert Pederson homestead in the Mendenhall Valley was known for its abundant garden and dairy products. The Treadwell Mines purchased Pederson vegetables for their boarding house. Albert delivered the produce by boat, going down the river and into the Gastineau Channel when the tide was high.