Digging into a Dugout House (Site 21SW17): The Archaeology of Norwegian Immigrant Anna Byberg Christopherson Goulson, Swift Co., MN

Abstract

This report presents the results of excavations on the dugout house site (21SW17) of Anna Byberg Christopherson Goulson in west-central Minnesota. The work was completed by Dr. Donald W. Linebaugh of the University of Kentucky and a group of family volunteers between June 6 and 12, 2002. Anna and Lars Christopherson reportedly moved into their dugout house ca. 1868. Lars and two of the five Christopherson children died of scarlet fever ca. 1878. Anna married Hans Goulson, who had immigrated to the area from Wisconsin, in 1879. Sometime after the birth of their first child in the dugout in late 1879, Anna and Hans built a small wood frame house on land located about a half mile south of the dugout. Archaeological survey and investigations identified the dugout house and documented the belowground architecture of the structure. The later ca. 1880 wood frame house was also recorded as part of this project.