Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-01-30
A PIONEER PRAIRIE SOD HOUSE.

The sod house and dugout were fitting settings in the beautiful pm
oramc prairie pictures twenty-five 10 thirty years ago They did not mar
te beauty n harmony of the scene and were better adapted to the cn
dnlons and surroundings than a frame house would have been. They not
M oved the problem, 50 far as ease of construction was concerned, but
were more comfortable and a better protection against prairie fires, cyclones
TN Dhzzards than frame houses. Fuel for heating and cooking often had
10 De hauled forty to on hundred miles d it did not axe a much to heat
ne SOC house as would have been required for the kind of frame house
usually built in a new country. This was ute a item in a sparsely set
ud country where there weren M roads and only a great bleak, trackless
prairie.
0Had 1t not been fol the sod house and dugout these extensive belts
OF prairie natures greatest and best of farming lands-woud havelaidide,
n the country unsettled many years longer. If the land vas level the
our vail were laid up with good, tough prairie sod from two to three feet
lick The oof "a made by putting up a strong ridgepole, on which lighter
poes were laid close together for rafters then a covering of small brush and
lastly a layer of sod. If money "a not too short and lumber not too far
away, boards would be Used for the roof, but to-day scanting and tared or
felt paper are within the reach O. nearly all.
Inside walls were dressed down smooth with q hay knife, then pashred
With clay or a 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
would often be built in the side hill. After making a excavation in the
BANK sod OF stone walls were laid up and carried ut ar enough from the
ank to allow for a window OF two OF each side. With a door and two
windows in the front the light and ventilation wa very good.
l.. nm parts of the West the soil is of such a nature that an excavation
car be made of almost any depth or shape without any danger of caving,
n the longer the walls stand, the more solid they become. Taking advant
age OF this popularity of the soil, many of the shihess class lived in full
ban dugouts. They were simply caves dug in the bank; with a doora and
window in front Sometimes the luxury o a window al not INDUCED in,
but the "a made in two sections, the upper part being left open, for
light n ventilation.
Not much ca be said in favor of the dugout. They were poorly ven
tlated, unhealthy, II the odor would often compel a visitor to hold his
nse o. entering them for the first time The sod house and dugout have
served their day and purpose, and, like the Indian, buffalo nj prairie dog.
will son be but a dreamy memory of the past
In many localities where a few years ago the sod houses were the only
houses and the boundless prairie and wild animals their only SURROUNDINGS.
to-day are n houses and barns. Not a vesuge of the old buffalo grass
10 cal be found, ut In its place are M of the fines farms evers seen.
with herds of blooded cattle feeding N weLseeded tame pastures. Here
and there will be seen a pile of sod and a few rotten poles, all that is left to
mark the location If sol early home-Dr ". H. Steele in Farm and Home