The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1903-12-11
CRUDE PRAIRIE DoMIcILEs.
Sod Houses and DugOuts Were Com
mon in the West Thirty
Years Ago.

The sod house and dugout were fit
ting settings in the beautiful panoramic
prairie pictures rs to 80 years ago, says
Farm and Home. They did not mar
the beauty and harmony of the scene
and were better adapted to the condi-
lions and surroundings than a frame
house would have been. They not only
construction was concerned, but were
more comfortable and better protec-
ton against prairie fires, cyclones and
billiards. than frame houses. Fuel for
heating and cooking often had to be
hauled 40 to 100 miles and it did not
take as much to heat the sod house as
would have been required for the kind
of frame houses usually built in new
country. This was quite an item in
sparsely settled country where there
were no roads and only great bleak,
trackless prairie.
Had it not been for the sod house and
dugout, these extensive belts of prairie
natures greatest and best of farming
lands-would have laid idle and the
country unsettled many years longer.
If the land was level the four walls were
laid up with good, tough prairie sod
from two to three feet thick. The roof
was made by putting up strong ridge
pole, on which lighter poles were laid
close together for rafters, then a cover
ing of small brush and lastly layer OF
sod. If money was not too short and
lumber not too far away, boards would
be used for the roof, but to-day scantling
and tarred or felt paper are within the
reach of nearly all.
Inside walls were dressed down
smooth with hay knife, then plas-
tered with clay or mixture of clay and
lime. The door and windows were
made just as elaborate as the means OF
the settler would allow. If the farm
was in hilly country and had stream
or draw running through it, the house
would often be built in the side hill.
After making an excavation in the bank,
sod or stone walls were laid up and
carried out far enough from the bank
to allow for a window or two on each
side. With door and two windows in
the front the light and ventilation was
very good.
In some parts of the west the soil is
of such nature that an excavation
can be made of almost any depth or
shape without any danger of caving, and
the longer the walls stand, the more
solid they become. Taking advantage
of this popularity of the soil, many of
the shiftless class lived in full bank
dugouts. They were simply caves dug
in the bank, with door and window in
front. Sometimes the luxury of win
dow was not INDUCED in, but the door
was made in two sections, the upper part
being left open, for light and ventilation.
Not much can be said in favor of the
dugout. They were poorly ventilated,
unhealthy, and the odor would often
compel a visitor to hold his nSse on en-
tering them for the first time. The sod
house and dugout have served their day
and purpose, and, like the Indian, buff
falo and prairie dog, will soon be but
dreamy memory of the past.
In many localities where few years
ago the sod houses were the only houses
and the boundless prairie and wild ami
mails their only surroundings, to-day
are fine houses and barns Not ves-
tige of the old buffalo grass sod can be
found, but in it's place are some of the
finest farms ever seen, with herds of
FLOODED cattle feeding on well-seeded
tame pastures. Here and there will be
seen pile of sod and few rotten poles,
all that is left to mark the location of
some early home.