The Iowa Pioneer Experience
Sketch of first schoolhouse
Man Directing a Two-horse Plow
Wagon and Oxen Illustration, 1848
On the Move in a Wagon
Covered Wagons
Come to Iowa
Pioneers Travel in Groups
Sod Houses
Log Cabins
Frontier Social Gatherings
Interior of Settler Cabins
Pioneer Women
Sickness and Death on the Frontier
Pioneer Children
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Sod Houses
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Time Frame: Mid 1800's
In the mid 1800s settlers in parts of Iowa where no trees were found built houses from sod.
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Transcript
Once an agreeable plot of land was staked out, each Iowa pioneer faced the task of making it a fit place to live. For the first few months many families either lived out of their wagons or built crude shelters. The first priority was breaking prairie and planting crops. In the western part of the state, where forestland was scarce, some settlers built houses out of blocks of prairie sod. These sod houses were natural shelters against the raging blizzards and the rain and the sweltering summer sun. And there upkeep was practical. Leaks could easily be patched with soil and more sod.
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