I happened to catch this Classic episode of California’s Gold the other day on television. It’s great to be able to hear the memories of people who were on the spot when these structures were first built and used; and that includes Huell, who clearly had his own experience with quonset huts. As for the origin of the word quonset, it’s actually an Algonquian word meaning “small, long place,” and probably referred to the peninsula in present-day Rhode Island.

Huell gets a tour of the largest wooden buildings in the world, the vast blimp hangars at the U.S. Marine Air Corps Station Tustin. He then travels to the Seabee Naval Museum at Port Hueneme and Camp San Mateo in Camp Pendleton, to get a firsthand look at the history of an honest-to-goodness military institution: the quonset hut.

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)