Sod Shack

It is estimated that between 1900 and 1910, approximately one million sod houses were in use on the Prairies of North America. Upon their arrival on the Prairies, many settlers were dismayed to see that there were not enough large trees in the coulees to build a log cabin.

Undaunted, they turned to the only building material abundant on the bald prairie, sod. Heritage Park drew on the expertise of many people in erecting its own sod shack in 1971, but the majority of the credit goes to Fred Lee, an elderly carpenter who had grown up in a sod house in Saskatchewan. Fred’s memories of the many finer points of building with sod, such as attaching factory cotton to the walls using small saplings, helped build the most authentic sod house possible.