The examples in this essay are found in southwestern Minnesota and western Nebraska. Most existing soddies made entirely from turf are modern reconstructions or restorations. Soddies are small houses with walls built of stacked layers of uniformly cut turf. Roofs were made from timber, rough or planed, and covered with more sod. If timber was not available, roofs were built up with twigs, branches, bushes and straw.
Soddies are practical and tough, but vulnerable.
This building at Ash Hollow , Nebraska , was reconstructed in 1967 and is easily damaged when open-range cattle rub against the corners. This naturally occuring cross-section of prairie is near Lewellen , Nebraska , right along the Oregon Trail . The image shows a wispy layer of short-grass prairie plants and the overhanging soil held together by their root systems. To farm this land, settlers had to chop and smash through the top layer of prairie to create tillable soil. This is the tough layer of prairie sod.