An Oral History and Archeological Study of Nineteenth-Century Dugouts and Sod Homes in Frontier County, Nebraska

Abstract

Frontier County, Nebraska, founded in 1872, was one of Nebraska’s furthest westward territories at the time. It was founded in response to an influx of European settlers during westward expansion largely inspired by the Homestead Act of 1862. Some of the most prominent archeological sites attributed to this time period in Nebraska are those of dugouts and sod homes. Many of western Nebraska’s counties, such as Custer and Lincoln County, have a distinct array of oral history collections and archeological surveys of dugouts and sod homes published and readily available to the public. Frontier County shares the same rich history of Euro-American westward expansion and homesteading, but lacks a similar wealth of oral histories and archeological surveys. How do oral histories, as intangible heritage, articulate with tangible cultural landscapes and historic sites? How can oral history support the identification of unrecorded archeological sites representing historic sod and dugout structures? How can oral history help interpret sod structure sites? This research identifies a Frontier County family with homesteading roots, presents three oral history accounts of the family’s life in a dugout and sod home, uses archeological methods to identify a potentially unrecorded dugout structure, and presents an example of how oral history has articulated across Frontier County, Nebraska in the last 150 years.