Sod Houses

We watched Tom Isern’s Plains Folk presentation last evening on Facebook. He sang an old folk song “Little Old Sod Shanty on the Plains,” and spoke of window wells so deep they could be sat in. My mother-in-law told stories of her youth living in a sodhouse and how she’d sit in the deep window well and watch for her parents to come back after milking the cows.

Isern and his wife Suzzanne are both NDSU professors who lend attention to the history of pioneer life on the Great Plains. Their show has appeared several times to date and can still be found archived on the Great Plains Facebook site. Given the comments they’ve received, it’s obvious it’s starting to catch on around the country.