Thesod house orsoddy[1] was a common alternative to thelog cabin during frontier settlement of theGreat Plains ofNorth America in the 1800s and early 1900s.[2] Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, they came into use also to house humans, for theprairie often lacked standardbuilding materials such as wood or stone, whilesod from thickly rooted prairie grass was abundant and free and could be used for house construction.[2] Prairie grass has a much thicker, tougher root structure than a modern lawn.
Construction of a sod house involved cutting patches of sod in triangles and piling them into walls. Builders employed a variety of roofing methods.[3] Sod houses accommodated normal doors and windows. The resulting structure featured less expensive materials and was quicker to build than a wood-frame house, but required frequent maintenance and was 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. There is a variety of designs, including a type built by Mennonites in Prussia, Russia, and Canada called a semlin[4] and another inAlaska known as abarabara.
Sod houses that are individually notable and historic sites that include one or more sod houses or other sod structures include:
