VIDEO Exploring An 1800’s Pioneer Dugout Home

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Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
I can't begin to imagine living thru a winter in this dugout with eight children(!) even without the rattle snakes.

The dugout is featured at about the 3:00 to 8:10.

Fair use.

Exploring An 1800’s Pioneer Dugout Home​

Aug 7, 2022
My name is Carson Sleep, I’m 23 years old and am a 6th generation rancher on the Sleep Ranch. Our ranch is located in the Northern Black Hills on the South Dakota/ Wyoming border where my family settled and started ranching in 1883.

I work alongside my parents, Jeff and Jodi, our ranch hand, Jaques, and my wife, Damaris who also works as a nurse in town. We have friends and family who come along very frequently as well!

We run a cow/calf operation where we summer our cattle on the Black Hills National Forest and winter them in the foothills of the Black Hills. We also have a backgrounding feedlot, and grow alfalfa and grass hay.

To God be the Glory
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs4sJXxeugA

run time 20:41
 
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WalknTrot

Veteran Member
I'd say that dugout was more along the line originally of a root cellar. Sure..if the house burned down, they probably took refuge and lived in there 'til spring, (easy to keep warm) but doubt it was the long-term purpose it was built for. The Finlanders up here always built the log sauna-house first when they hacked their way into the boonies 130 years ago. They lived in the sauna only until they got the real house (usually log) built. Baby steps to get through their first winter(s).

My grandma was born in a soddy in N Dakota. Yep...also 8 kids, Grandma was fourth in line. A purpose-built soddy was a much different and more pleasant animal to live in. For example, you could have a couple windows. Important to keep some form of mental health intact over a long, windy Dakota winter.
 
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duchess47

duchess47

Has No Life - Lives on TB
My grandparents and five kids lived in a dugout in Nebraska after they lost their farm during the depression. I have a very hazy memory of it when my grandmother still lived there with my two youngest uncles.

I don’t remember much other than there was a half window like a basement window with curtains, and my grandmother was worried because we (at least one uncle in his very early teens) and I had mumps.

This would have been late 40’s or early 50’s.
 
Millwright

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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They are still around here on old home sites.

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hiwall

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Everyone now needs a 3000 sq ft home with central air and heating. Showers twice per day and eating out at a restaurant at least once per day. Ready to eat meals that just need to be heated in the microwave when they decide to not go out.
They still make dugouts but now they are called "earth homes".
 
db cooper

db cooper

Resident Secret Squirrel
hiwall said:
Everyone now needs a 3000 sq ft home with central air and heating. Showers twice per day and eating out at a restaurant at least once per day. Ready to eat meals that just need to be heated in the microwave when they decide to not go out.
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So much truth to your statement. There's just no way in hell many people, especially the big city libs, would ever consider something like this as a survival tool.

But our pioneer ancestors did exactly that. In ND my parents told me during harsh winters of the early 1900's they'd bring livestock into the home. They'd have a rope tied to the home going to the outhouse so no one got lost in a blizzard. I was told of sod homes and tarpaper shacks that many pioneers erected. As a kid some of these shacks were still standing. Also still standing were many rock & mortar homes with wall over a foot thick.
 
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mecoastie

Veteran Member
It was a case of using the local materials they had avail. They didnt have the option of getting materials from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. I imagine if some of that stuff had been avail to them they would have much preferred to use it.
 
stormie

stormie

Veteran Member
Thanks for posting this video. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. The rattlesnake gave me the willies though. A few years ago our place got inundated with rattlers and I killed at least 6 huge ones within a space of a few weeks. One of my dogs got bit. I also had a baby rattler in my garage that I walked near while wearing flip flops. Had no idea it was there until I walked near it and it did it's baby rattler noise. Killed it with a shovel that was within reach.

After having experienced that snake year from hell, I will never walk through high brush like what the young couple went through without wearing snake boots. I can not imagine having small kids and babies back in those days running around playing around the dugout, barns, and fields. Even if they were able to keep the brush cleared away snakes still come around.

edited for typos
 
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Bubble Head

Bubble Head

Has No Life - Lives on TB
My Grandfather dug and lived in one for a couple of years while they got their shack up. He told me he would kill 3 or 4 rattlesnakes a day when he firs got here. Most people don’t know what they are. A few around here are spacious. They used logs for the roof and walls covering the roof with about 3 foot of dirt.
 
lisa

lisa

Veteran Member
My mother was born in a little wooden house (1930) in Minnesota. The house was built on a small hill and it had a trap door that went down into the barn from the house. There was also an outdoor entrance to the barn in the side of the hill. This worked well in Minnesota, if there was a big blizzard they could still get to the animals. Later, Grandpa built the big house next door but they all lived in the little house for several years.
 
von Koehler

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
db cooper said:
So much truth to your statement. There's just no way in hell many people, especially the big city libs, would ever consider something like this as a survival tool.

But our pioneer ancestors did exactly that. In ND my parents told me during harsh winters of the early 1900's they'd bring livestock into the home. They'd have a rope tied to the home going to the outhouse so no one got lost in a blizzard. I was told of sod homes and tarpaper shacks that many pioneers erected. As a kid some of these shacks were still standing. Also still standing were many rock & mortar homes with wall over a foot thick.
Click to expand...

To put the weather of that time into context, they were going through a mini solar minimum, the Centennial. Much colder then today.
 
Greenspode

Greenspode

Veteran Member
Countrymouse said:
Laura Ingalls Wilder's "On the Banks of Plum Creek" describes in detail their adventures living in a dugout one year...
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I have been to that historical site in Walnut Grove Minnesota. The dugout itself is caved in, and is mostly just a depression in the ground, but it is right near the creek, and we were able to walk around and visualize the landmarks she talked about. Going around the town was awesome.....the church bell that Pa gave up the money he was going to use for a new coat towards is still in the church. Many of the landmarks are still there. It was a cool visit! I have also been to the LIW farm in Missouri, the one that she and Almanzo built when the moved there. Pa's fiddle, and the china shepardess are there in the museum. Another cool place for LIW fans to explore!
 
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bracketquant

Veteran Member
Greenspode said:
I have been to that historical site in Walnut Grove Minnesota. The dugout itself is caved in, and is mostly just a depression in the ground, but it is right near the creek, and we were able to walk around and visualize the landmarks she talked about. Going around the town was awesome.....the church bell that Pa gave up the money he was going to use for a new coat towards is still in the church. Many of the landmarks are still there. It was a cool visit! I have also been to the LIW farm in Missouri, the one that she and Almanzo built when the moved there. Pa's fiddle, and the china shepardess are there in the museum. Another cool place for LIW fans to explore!
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Was Willie in the corner of the schoolhouse?
 
hiwall

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
For the time period, many "houses" were actually pretty efficient. The dugouts were in the ground to keep the inside temp more constant, cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
Log homes had the natural insulation of the logs to make them easier to heat.
 
Greenspode

Greenspode

Veteran Member
bracketquant said:
Was Willie in the corner of the schoolhouse?
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:p Lol. The original building isn't even there anymore. There is a new, more modern (1960's?) school in its place, but the Oleson's store building was still there, if I recall correctly! The church bell had been moved to a newer church near the original location.
 
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Publius

TB Fanatic
Have to keep an eye on this for a follow up video.
In the early 1930s many families collectively in that part of the country built root cellars that some today would say it was one of these dugout homes.
 
Sammy55

Sammy55

Veteran Member
Old Gray Mare said:
Those people were tough. They had to be.
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And sometimes, the times were too tough for them. My great great grandfather had a farm in the Walnut Grove area around the time of Little House on the Prairie. From what I can tell, he was doing okay and his kids were growing up. One of his daughters married in that area but moved to Aitkin, Minnesota area with her husband and many kids. Then her husband died in a logging accident. She had to work and couldn't afford to take care of all the kids. They were pieced out to family and friends in the Walnut Grove area. One son ended up with the "Olson" family to be adopted and raised with Nellie and her brother. He's even mentioned in one of the books.

Then a huge grasshopper infestation hit that SW MN area for several years. And then his wife, my gggrandmother, died. Farmers all over couldn't afford to keep their farms. I don't know if he sold his farm or he couldn't afford to keep it going. He ended up going to live with his son in the Aitkin area and to be near by his widowed daughter. Gggf ended up dying shortly after that. I've been there looking for him. No death record (they didn't have to report it back then) and no sign of him in any cemeteries. His son, besides losing his father, also lost 3 children during as many years. No death record or cemetery stones for them that I've found either. Or for his wife in Walnut Grove area. I suspect there are lots of home cemeteries all over the place.

Times were tough for them back then. Sometimes they were able to make it through but sometimes they couldn't last and they either moved on or died. But they did a lot more with a lot less than the people do today. I greatly respect them for that!
 
K

KFhunter

Veteran Member
bw said:
They need to brace the bottom of that door frame to hold back the frost heave.
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Ya I was looking at that, I think dig along the wall there until it's stable and straight, restack the stones that have pushed in, add new mortar and build a new rattlesnake proof door frame :D
 
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WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Publius said:
Have to keep an eye on this for a follow up video.
In the early 1930s many families collectively in that part of the country built root cellars that some today would say it was one of these dugout homes.
Click to expand...
Haha...yep...I was thinking the same thing. The kid really didn't know much about his history. Bet Grandpa straightens some of his BS out for him. :lol:
 
Greenspode

Greenspode

Veteran Member
Sammy55 said:
And sometimes, the times were too tough for them. My great great grandfather had a farm in the Walnut Grove area around the time of Little House on the Prairie. From what I can tell, he was doing okay and his kids were growing up. One of his daughters married in that area but moved to Aitkin, Minnesota area with her husband and many kids. Then her husband died in a logging accident. She had to work and couldn't afford to take care of all the kids. They were pieced out to family and friends in the Walnut Grove area. One son ended up with the "Olson" family to be adopted and raised with Nellie and her brother. He's even mentioned in one of the books.

Then a huge grasshopper infestation hit that SW MN area for several years. And then his wife, my gggrandmother, died. Farmers all over couldn't afford to keep their farms. I don't know if he sold his farm or he couldn't afford to keep it going. He ended up going to live with his son in the Aitkin area and to be near by his widowed daughter. Gggf ended up dying shortly after that. I've been there looking for him. No death record (they didn't have to report it back then) and no sign of him in any cemeteries. His son, besides losing his father, also lost 3 children during as many years. No death record or cemetery stones for them that I've found either. Or for his wife in Walnut Grove area. I suspect there are lots of home cemeteries all over the place.

Times were tough for them back then. Sometimes they were able to make it through but sometimes they couldn't last and they either moved on or died. But they did a lot more with a lot less than the people do today. I greatly respect them for that!
Click to expand...
What an interesting family history.....especially the connection to LIW and the Olson's! Thank you for sharing!
 
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