28 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN June/July 2025 Pioneer Housing Nebraska, and the western prairie, would change drastically after the Civil War. Good farmland along the Platte River became available, starting with the land grants from the transcontinental railroad. There were also abundant grasslands opening up for cattle to graze as the bison were eliminated and the Native Americans subjugated. With these changes, people flocked to settle in the state’s interior. One of the immediate hurdles these pioneers had to deal with was housing. The prairie contained little timber for building material, and obtaining and transporting building supplies was expensive and often impractical. The answer was dugout houses, sod houses and log cabins where timber was available. Dugouts were a favorite for many. Although labor intensive to build, they were cheap and, being largely underground, offered excellent natural insulation in the winter. The accompanying Oklahoma dugout, with its proud family, is built into a bank and has a sod front wall and roof. Sod houses were very popular as the building material was obviously easily obtained. They offered excellent insulation and had more semblance to the type of houses the settlers had left behind with simple luxuries like windows. Log cabins were highly desirable when the timber was available. ~NC~ Dugout. Photo by Erwin E. Smith (1886-1947). Credit: Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Across the Continent – “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way,” 1868, by Currier & Ives. Credit: National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institute. Prairie dugout. Postcard. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. An 1886 sod house, the Morrison residence, on Victoria Creek near Merna in Custer County. Photo by Solomon D. Butcher. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. This ca. 1870s log house with a sod roof is located on the Schuler-Olsen Ranch. It is the oldest standing house in western Nebraska. Image courtesy of Butch Schuler. BOB HOUGH | CONTRIBUTING WRITER PAST on the Prairie
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