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 The McCone "Soddies" The next day was sunny and beautiful, and I continued heading west across southern Minnesota, driving by countless fields of corn, alfalfa, and soybeans, all quite bucolic and exceptionally scenic. Shortly after noon, as I approached the small town of Sanborn, I pulled off the two-lane highway and drove about a mile down a dirt road to visit some sod houses that, according to my AAA TourBook, were built there recently.
I'm intrigued with sod houses partly because my mother once told me that her great-grandparents, who had emigrated from Norway and Germany to the U.S., lived in sod houses in Minnesota and South Dakota in the late 1800s. I'd seen lots of pictures of sod houses but had never been inside one.
Following the signs, I pulled into the empty driveway of a spacious farmhouse, then a pleasant woman named Virginia McCone came out and introduced herself. She had apparently been baking cinnamon buns because the sweet smell wafted out onto the porch as we talked. A few minutes later, her genial husband, Stan, emerged from the house and I told them that I was heading to nearby Windom to see what I could learn about my great-great-grandparents, who had homesteaded near there in the 1800s. (For information on homesteading, see my page on The 1862 Homestead Act).
Stan and Virginia told me that they had farmed this land for many years and are interested in preserving pioneer heritage, and so, needless to say, I felt an instant rapport with them. Sort of like in the movie "Field of Dreams," Stan plowed under part of his cornfield a while ago and planted a tall-grass prairie with grasses that are almost entirely extinct now in Minnesota, thus recreating the landscape of the mid-1800s. He also built several sod houses on his farm a few years ago, one of which is a cozy bed-and-breakfast with wooden floors and a wooden ceiling.
As I walked through the sod houses on the McCone farm, I learned a lot about "soddies," as they were called (not to be confused with Saudis, few of whom, I'm pretty sure, ever homesteaded in Minnesota). For instance, over a million sod houses once dotted the treeless plains of the Midwest during the late 1800s. Most homesteaders in this area built sod houses because wood was expensive and scarce, which is hard to imagine today because of all the trees here. However, there were fewer trees back in those days because of the frequent prairie fires that swept through the area, which today, of course, are suppressed.
"Sod" is the several inches of grass and roots that lay above the soil. To build a soddy, homesteaders cut three-foot long blocks of sod, then stacked them on top of each other, placing them upside-down for better cohesion. Based on most accounts that I've read, sod houses were fairly snug and comfortable, despite their dirt floors. Indeed, the thick sod walls provided excellent insulation against the bitterly cold Midwestern winters.
The main problem with a soddy, however, was that the roof tended to leak during heavy rainstorms. Also, soddies were often dark inside, since window glass was a rare commodity on the prairie frontier. Another problem was that foreign objects, such as clumps of dirt, strands of grass, or various insects, tended to drop from the ceiling and land on the occupants heads or onto their plates of bratwurst (if the settlers were German) or lutefisk (if they were Norwegian). (For those non-Norwegians, you can read about this delicacy on my lutefisk page). Sadly, almost all the sod houses eventually melted back into the earth and today the only soddies standing are ones such as these that have been reconstructed.
As I walked through the fascinating McCone sod houses, I envisioned my great-great-grandparents living in sod houses such as these while they homesteaded near here in the late 1800s. It'll be a while before I complain again about my microwave dinner taking five minutes to cook.
The McCone sod houses and tall-grass prairie were fascinating and I spent over an hour here. If you want a real taste of the pioneer homesteading experience – not to mention one of Virginia's delicious cinnamon buns – and want to better appreciate the modern conveniences that we all take for granted, drop by the McCone farm near Sanborn, Minnesota. And don't forget your lutefisk.
Above left: Stan McCone recently built several sod houses on his farm here, near Sanborn, Minnesota. They were featured a while ago on the History Channel. I talked to Stan and his wife, Virginia. They're both nice folks and are interested in preserving the pioneering heritage. Best of luck to you! Above right: Imagine cooking on this wood stove. But there's no wood out here, so instead the pioneers burned cow patties. And a glass window was a rare and precious commodity back then. Many sod houses used oiled paper, instead.
Above left: This sod house on the McCone farm is also a bed-and-breakfast. Stan has also restored the prairie here, planting native grasses on several acres. Above right: Inside the bed-and-breakfast sod house. It had a large bed, wooden floors, and a wooden ceiling. Actually it looks quite comfortable.
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