The Smokehouse is a small and compact building, which sits along the village created by William West Durant in the 1800’s.  This building is made out of local stones, which are approximately 16 inches thick, and has a wooden shingled roof.  The inside of the smokehouse is very simple with several nails lining the upper walls and wire trays on wooden racks, which were used for hanging various meats to be smoked.

     It was known that W.W. Durant built the first smokehouse since it was on the bill of sale to Collis P. Huntington, although it was not listed as a smokehouse, it was listed as an ash house.  Ash was very important to Durant’s self-sustaining community, as it was used in the production of soap.  In order to produce soap fats (acids) and lye (base) are needed.  The two are combined and have a chemical reaction that results in soap.  People in the 1800’s were forced to make a lye solution from wood ash, hence the reason for an ash house.

     Once Huntington bought the camp, he turned the ash house into the smokehouse that it is today.  An important part of the smokehouse that was presumably under Huntington was the wood furnace in the rear of the structure.  This woodstove is responsible for heating the smokehouse a minimum of 200-220F in order to smoke meat for proper storage.  Since the main purpose of the smokehouse was to preserve meats for storage for the upcoming year, as there was no electricity during this time period.  Only hardwoods were used to smoke food, the most popular wood was Hickory.  Food was smoked for at least three hours, and is sometimes smoked for several days, depending on the meat and moisture content.  After smoking, the food needed to be chilled quickly then cut and wrapped for later consumption.