In 1897, Joseph L. Sandford cut a home into a hillside on a homestead claim in Sioux County, Nebraska. Other farm structures were replaced or lost, but the dugout remained.

This episode reconstructs ten stages: choosing the bank, cutting the room and sloping the floor forward, building the front wall, framing the roof, laying brush and sod, dealing with leaks, adding a window, living on earth, heating with scarce fuel, and understanding why a dugout was usually a temporary home.

We also examine the 1873 flood that trapped John Turner’s family and Solomon D. Butcher’s photographs of the McCaslin family moving from dugout to sod house. A dugout and a sod house are different structures. This historical explanation is not instructions for excavating or building a shelter.

Sources:
History Nebraska, Dugout Construction and A Dugout Flood.
Nebraska Studies, Searching for Shelter.
Library of Congress, Solomon D. Butcher Photograph Collection.
National Register, Sandford Dugout, reference 00000166.

0:00 The Last Intact Dugout in Nebraska
1:45 Subtracting Instead of Assembling
4:20 Choosing the Right Bank
6:42 The Invisible Detail of Floor Drainage
9:11 The Only Wall You Had to Build
14:07 Life Inside a Dirt Shelter