My relatives did. Circa 1880, when my peeps first rolled into North Dakota on the cross-continental railroad. This is one of the really interesting things I learned when researching my debut novel, Dakota Blues. My relatives were chasing after free land. Land was precious, because they had run out of it back home in the Banat section of Lets-Call-It-Germany (the politics shifted so much it changed every five minutes, from Austria to Hungary to Turkey.) In order to claim the land on this virgin prairie – so full of potential! – you had to build a house of some kind, but here comes a shock.
There were no trees.
It was prairie! A sea of grass as far as you could see, maybe fifty miles in every direction from the little knoll under your feet. Without trees, how would you build a house? You couldn’t buy lumber – there were no towns, no lumber yards, no Home Depot. Heck, no neighbors, doctors…Besides, you would have spent most of your money on a horse, plow, seed and provisions. There was nothing left for a house, and anyway, a house was just a place you slept when you weren’t trying to coax crops out of the rocky fields. (Of course, this was the farmer’s view. His wife and half-dozen kids might have felt differently.)
So to start with, you dug a cave into a hillside, put up a front door of some kind and went to work.
Eventually as a farmer’s situation improved, he would build an above-ground house made of blocks of sod. Kind of like a dirt igloo. They called them soddies. When the farmer could, he built a new and better house out of rocks. You can still see these stone houses all over North Dakota.
But not everybody prospered, and not everybody moved into better digs (hey, maybe that’s where that word comes from!) A couple of my bachelor uncles liked it so much they never moved out. Sometimes in the winter, this could be a problem, as snowfall could block their door. Other relatives would always remember to go dig them out as soon as the storm stopped.
I loved researching this novel. I’ve made a couple of trips back to ND to experience the land, the people, my relatives, and my history. Just reading about the immigrant experience was fascinating. That’s part of why it has taken me four years to write this book. You can get lost in the research. Even if Dakota Blues never gets published (perish the thought), I am a richer person for the experience of writing it.
Perhaps suffering through such adversities made for a more resilient bunch of ancestors?! And just think — you’re carrying on the tradition by immersing yourself in all that interesting research. I know what you mean — I can get lost browsing through a dictionary! That’s why I really have to limit my Internet time, or I’d never get anything done, ha! Like Kathy, I’m eager to see Dakota Blues on the bookshelf!
Lush backdrop. Enjoyed.
Lynne,
Your description is so rich in detail and fascinating! And, as they say, it’s all in the sensory detail. Interesting post on the importance of doing research. Also explains why it takes so darn long to write a book. I will be celebrating the birth of Dakota Blues with you!
Kathy
Lynne,
This is fascinating fodder for a novel and so rich with history! I have no doubt that you will get it published. You have a very engaging writing style.