Sod House on the Prairie

Hey!  Speaking of Children’s Literature, let’s drive to southern Minnesota and see some Little House sights!

Our first stop is the Sod House on the Prairie.

IMG_3974

Stan McCone built a sod house and a dugout on his farm near Sanborne, MN.  He cut the sod from a site several miles away and brought it to his farm.  He also restored five acres of prairie grasses and wildflowers.

IMG_3975

Approaching the sod house.

IMG_3977

IMG_3978

Inside.  This is a very fancy example of a sod house.  It is very large with its whitewashed walls.  It served as a bed and breakfast for many years, though it does not anymore.

IMG_3979

The thick window frames remind me of cobb houses.

IMG_3980

Overall, it’s a pretty spacious and light-filled dwelling.

IMG_3981

I loved the door detail.

IMG_3982

On our way to the dugout we encountered a farm cat.

IMG_3983

Prairie and flowers.

IMG_3985

The dugout.   The back side is dug into a hill.

IMG_3986

Front door and roof detail.

IMG_3987

IMG_3988

This is much smaller than the soddy.  It felt oppressive inside, even with two very big windows.

IMG_3989

This was bigger than the dugout Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family occupied in On the Banks of Plum Creek.  And that dugout only had one window and it was grease paper.

IMG_3990

Plow.

IMG_3992

Tool needed to create sod house/dugout.

IMG_3993

The ever important outhouse.

IMG_3984

View of both the dugout and the soddy.

IMG_3994

Pretty prairie flower. The internet tells me its Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) L.

IMG_3995

4 thoughts on “Sod House on the Prairie”

  1. I love this “If you build it, they will come” story of these little soddies! It is rather classic! Yay for America+capitalism+literary love!

  2. I’m really surprised by how nice the sod house is on the inside. You wouldn’t guess it from the way it looks on the outside. Do you have any idea why the window frames are so wide? Just curious. Was the farm cat friendly? I like the shot of the plow.

    1. The farm was cat friendly in that there was one sleeping on the porch when we paid the farmer and when we remarked on it, he offered to give it to us. Another had a big sore on him. So farm cats, which is hard for pampered pet me to deal with.

      I think the window frames are so wide because the sod is rather thick, unlike balloon frame of how houses are now built.

  3. I’ve just gotten to processing these posts for our blog. Will wonders never cease?!?! And I came by to check the order of the places. I had it correct. Yay me!

Leave a Reply to stenaros Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *