Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, if the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, or the poverty of the settlers precluded purchasing standard building materials, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant, free, and could be used for house construction.
What was the sod house used for?
The sod house or "soddy" was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals and fences, if the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, or the poverty...
What is a sod wall in construction?
SOD-WALL CONSTRUCTION Probably no building technology is as synonymous with the Great Plains as the sod wall. This construction material was mined from the surface strata of Plains soils, complete with the roots and rhizomes of prairie grasses and forbs.
Can you build a sod house on a prairie?
Sod house. If the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant and could be used for construction. Prairie grass had a much thicker, tougher root structure than modern landscaping grass.
When was the first sod house built in Custer County?
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, several Custer County farmers who had lost their homes relocated to vacant land and built sod houses there. As late as 1940, a sod house was built near Dunning, Nebraska. The sod houses of Custer County are particularly well documented, owing to the efforts of Solomon Butcher.
What is the Great Plains sod wall?
Where did sod originate?
What grasses were used in the Central Plains?
Where are sod walls built?
Where is buffalo grass found?
Where did sods come from?
What is the habitat of grassland?
See 2 more
About this website
What was sod used for in the Great Plains?
Sod was used to construct a wide variety of house types as well as numerous other buildings, although multiple-story buildings were rare. Plowed bricks–"prairie marble"–were laid in masonry fashion grass side down, the first layer typically on undisturbed soil that had been cleared and leveled.
How did the settlers use sod?
Most farmers cut sod from the area where they planned to build their house. Doing so provided a flat surface on which to build and helped protect the house from prairie fires. Removing the grass from the area also helped keep insects, snakes, and vermin from burrowing into the house.
What was a sod house and why was it used on the Great Plains?
What was a Sod House? Native American Indians living on the grass covered plains and prairies of the mid-west, where there was a scarcity of trees, utilized sod or turf to construct Earth Lodges. American Homesteaders moved to the prairies and also used earthen material to build the rectangular shaped Sod House.
What was an advantage of living in a sod house?
But sod homes had advantages, too. They were fireproof, a distinct advantage in a region where grassfires raged. Also, houses made of dirt stayed cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than those constructed with traditional building materials.
Did the settlers live in sod houses?
Settler families tended to live in their sod houses six or seven years. If the exterior was covered over with whitewash or stucco, the houses could last much longer. But sod construction had it's limits.
What was life like in a sod house?
Since the house was literally built of dirt and grass, it was constantly infested with bugs, mice, snakes, and assorted other "varmints and vermin." One sod-house settler lamented that, "In the afternoons, every afternoon, the rattlesnakes would come out of their hidden dens in the walls and roof, and sun themselves on ...
Why did farmers build sod houses?
Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, if the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, or the poverty of the settlers precluded purchasing standard building materials, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant, free, and could be used for house construction.
What was inside of sod houses?
The interior walls might be covered by paper or cloth, or plastered with a clay mixture and whitewashed. Houses were often partitioned into rooms using blankets or cowhides. Unfortunately, sod roofs leaked, with one day's rain outside resulting in two days' worth of runoff inside.
What do you call a house made of sod?
Those homes reflected the available natural resources of the land. In forested areas, log homes were popular. Some areas in rocky terrain used stones. Some in the Southwest, where clay was plentiful, used adobe. On the Great Plains, sod houses, called “soddies,” were the most common abodes.
What were the advantages and disadvantages of a sod house?
Sod was a natural insulator, keeping out cold in winter, and heat in summer, while wood houses, which usually had no insulation, were just the opposite: always too hot or too cold. Another advantage of a soddy was that it offered protection from fire, wind, and tornadoes. But a soddy also had drawbacks.
How long did a sod house last?
Assuming the walls were competently laid in the first place, the potential longevity of a sod house is presently indeterminate; in other words, we know from the best-preserved examples that they will last for at least 120 years; but we are still counting!
Who lived in sod house?
Settler families tended to live in their sod houses six or seven years. If the exterior was covered over with whitewash or stucco, the houses could last much longer. But sod construction had it's limits.
How did settlers build sod houses?
Sod was laid around the sides and on top of boards placed above the window frame. A gap, left at the top above the frame, was filled with rags or grass, which allowed the sod to settle without crushing the glass panes in the window. Pegs, driven into the sod through holes in the frames, held them in place.
How long did a sod house last?
Assuming the walls were competently laid in the first place, the potential longevity of a sod house is presently indeterminate; in other words, we know from the best-preserved examples that they will last for at least 120 years; but we are still counting!
When were sod houses built?
From the 1870s on, both good and bad sod houses were constructed. The quality of the structure depended on the skill of the people constructing it and the time, money and effort put into it. One family put a tremendous amount of effort into their two-story soddy north of Broken Bow.
What was a disadvantage of building a home from sod?
Drawbacks of Sod Roofs Neglecting to manage sod roofs can cause tall weeds to grow, and the turf may even dry up and wilt, which then makes your house unsightly. Second, sod roofs require a very strong roof architecture, which can be quite expensive and heavy to the pockets.
What was sod used for in the prairie?
Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, if the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, or the poverty of the settlers precluded purchasing standard building materials, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant, free, and could be used for house construction.
How was a sod house built?
Construction of a sod house involved cutting patches of sod in triangles, often 2 ft × 1 ft × 0.5 ft (61.0 cm × 30.5 cm × 15.2 cm), and piling them into walls. Builders employed a variety of roofing methods. Sod houses accommodated normal doors and windows. The resulting structure featured less expensive materials, and was quicker to build than a wood frame house. However, sod houses required frequent maintenance and were often vulnerable to rain damage, especially if the roof was also primarily of sod. Stucco was sometimes used to protect the outer walls. Canvas or stucco often lined the interior walls.
What is a sod house?
Unusually well appointed interior of a sod house, North Dakota, 1937. The sod house or soddy was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States.
What is the Sod House Frontier?
The Sod-House Frontier, 1854–1890: A Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to the Admission of the Dakotas. University of Nebraska. v.
Where is Heman Gibbs Farmstead?
Heman Gibbs Farmstead, Falcon Heights, Minnesota; the NRHP-listed site includes a replica of the original 1849 sod house.
What was used to protect the outer walls of a house?
Stucco was sometimes used to protect the outer walls. Canvas or stucco often lined the interior walls. While the influence of the sod house cannot be overlooked, stone or timber was preferred. Where railroads existed, allowing easy access to building materials, most houses and buildings of the period were framed.
Where did sod originate?
There is no consensus among scholars regarding the origin of sod construction on the Plains. Some maintain that the inspiration came from the earth lodges of the local native peoples, including the Omahas and the Pawnees. However, these earth lodges were circular in cross-section, and built upon heavy timber frameworks. It has also been suggested that the idea of building with sod came from European immigrants, either Russian-Germans, who are known to have built rammed earth dwellings in the Plains, or immigrants from the British Isles, particularly from Ireland, where turf houses were built with stone foundations and frames to support the turf. None of these closely resembled the unframed sod-block houses built in the Midwestern United States, but they might have engendered the idea of building with earth.
Why did sod houses have sod roofs?
Early sod houses were roofed with sod. The weight of the roof helped to keep it from blowing away in strong winds, and the insulating power of such a roof helped to moderate temperatures within the house. However, the sod roof's weight also posed the risk of collapse if there was insufficient wood support for it, and sod roofs tended to drip water, mud, and insects. In later sod houses, for which the material was more readily available, roofs were shingled or covered with tarpaper, boards, or metal.
How many wythes are in a sod block?
In building the walls, the sod blocks were laid one course at a time; each course was completed before the next was begun. Walls were generally two or three wythes thick; the vertical joints were staggered to avoid creating a direct path through the wall for wind and vermin. To bind the wythes and increase the stability of the wall, every second, third, or fourth course was laid crosswise.
Why were footings rarely laid in Dowse House?
Footings were rarely laid, due to the cost or unavailability of material. Sod blocks in upper portion of north wall of Dowse house. Before the sod blocks were cut, the grass was mown short or burned off.
What were the most expensive elements of a sod house?
Since windows were one of the most expensive elements of a sod house, pioneers on a budget were often forced to make do with windows that were small and few in number; a light muslin ceiling and plastered walls helped to illuminate the house by reflecting daylight through the interior.
What were the disadvantages of sod?
Initially, at least, most had dirt floors, which had to be sprinkled with water to abate dust. To protect against invasion by rodents, insects, and snakes, the interior walls were often shaved smooth and plastered with lime, or with a mixture of local clay and sand or ashes; the lower portions of the exterior walls could also be reinforced, with planks or concrete if they were available, or with a second layer of sod to thicken them. Leaky roofs were also a problem; to protect the inhabitants and the interior furnishings from falling water, dirt, and vermin, it was common to make a ceiling of a white muslin sheet tacked to the walls. Since windows were one of the most expensive elements of a sod house, pioneers on a budget were often forced to make do with windows that were small and few in number; a light muslin ceiling and plastered walls helped to illuminate the house by reflecting daylight through the interior.
When was the Dowse Sod House built?
Built. 1900 . NRHP reference No. 86003365. The William R. Dowse House, more commonly known as the Dowse Sod House, is a sod house in Custer County in the central portion of the state of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. It was built in 1900 and occupied until 1959.
Where is the Sod House Museum?
At the beginning of the twenty-first century the Sod House Museum in Alfalfa County, four miles north of Cleo Springs, protected a soddy that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 (NR 70000526). Melvena Thurman Heisch.
How to build a soddy?
To build a soddy the homesteader first chose a construction site, squared the interior dimensions of the house, and dampened and packed the floor area.
What is the Great Plains sod wall?
Probably no building technology is as synonymous with the Great Plains as the sod wall. This construction material was mined from the surface strata of Plains soils, complete with the roots and rhizomes of prairie grasses and forbs. The structural strength of the material was derived from the root mass, whose interlocking structure composed significantly more than half of the soil strata.
Where did sod originate?
It is unlikely that sod construction originated from immigrant introduction or "pioneer ingenuity" or that it was copied from the membranes of Native American earth lodges. Early observations of the material do not offer reliable evidence or provide clues. Sod walls were often referred to as "dobes" by early observers, and after the proliferation of sod-wall construction, many clay-walled buildings came to be called "soddies."
What grasses were used in the Central Plains?
While many of these suggest that pure stands of certain grasses were used, most of them likely describe the predominant grass in a mixed community. In the Central Plains grasses most commonly used included bluestems, buffalo, prairie cordgrass ( Spartina pectinata ), and wheat, Indian, and wire grasses.
Where are sod walls built?
The area of shortgrass and mixed-grass Great Plains prairies constitutes the principal region of sod-wall construction. While a few examples are known to have been built from true prairie sods in eastern Nebraska, Iowa, and southwestern Minnesota, these are generally exceptional. (Whether this is for historical or environmental reasons has not been determined.) Some true prairie grasses such as big bluestem ( Andropogon gerardi) were popular for sod-wall construction in mixed prairie environments where these grasses extended westward along valleys.
Where is buffalo grass found?
Buffalo grass ( Buchloe dactyloides) was one of the most important grasses of the High Plains of Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado, where it was often found in pure stands. Its sod is extraordinarily dense, with a structure of fine but very tough and wiry roots spreading widely in all directions. Together with the roots of adjacent plants, buffalo grass forms a dense, multidirectional mat with considerable tensile strength. This root system allowed for the cutting of bricks of great dimensional stability.
Where did sods come from?
The earliest reliable account of the use of sods for building comes from Fort Kearny on the Platte River in present-day central Nebraska. There, in 1848 Lt. Daniel P. Woodbury started his troops preparing adobe bricks but later shifted their effort to the cutting of sods in order to speed construction. The technology appears to have diffused from there up and down the Platte River valley and then to near and distant places around the Great Plains. The diffusion, however, was concentrated in the Central Great Plains.
What is the habitat of grassland?
The diverse expanse of the Great Plains affords many different habitats for grassland vegetation. Grass communities preferred for sod-wall construction were sod-forming varieties rather than bunchgrasses. Any level or nearly level site with a contiguous stand of a dominant, sod-forming grass provided suitable material, but preferred stands were often found in moist valleys, lowlands, or larger sinks known as buffalo wallows. Under locally advantageous conditions, bunchgrasses such as the adaptive little bluestem ( Andropogon scoparious) might even be present in a sodforming habitat.
Overview
The sod house or soddy was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, if the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, or the poverty of the settlers precluded purchasing standard building materials, sod from …
Sod houses on the Great Plains
History
Notes
External links