Dugout Dwellings: Pioneer Housing in 19th Century Minnesota

The great American frontier, the leading edge of that fast-moving wave of European immigrants that washed over the North American continent after Columbus, reached what is now western Minnesota in the mid-1860s. There, the settlers found what might have been a daunting climate if they had originated in southern Europe, but for the thousands of Scandinavians the sparse trees, the flat, marshy landscape and the frigid winters must have seemed like a milder version of their homelands. The Norwegians and Swedes knew how to develop such a landscape, how to make things grow in the short growing season, and, most importantly, how to keep warm and safe in the winters. No wonder these hardy immigrants were not put off by a months-long journey or the news of ongoing battles with the original inhabitants (if indeed they heard the news at all).

Scandinavian Dugout Dwellings

The Scandinavian dugout house was ideally suited for such a climate and time. Excavated into the slope of a hillside, and roofed with logs or blocks of turf or sod, the dugouts were warm in winter and cool in summer, if a bit on the dark and clammy side. Doors and windows were limited to one wall, and the windows would have been covered with oiled paper, until pane glass became readily available. Such houses were perfect for setting up the beginnings of a homestead, for keeping the family safe and healthy until crop yields permitted the purchase of lumber for a frame farmhouse.

Norwegian Pioneer: Anna Byberg Christopher Goulson

The modern descendants of Norwegian immigrants Anna Byberg and her husbands Lars Christopherson and Hans Goulson know this story well. On the old family farm lies a rectangular depression full of scrub brush and 30-50 year old trees. The depression measures 40 feet north/south by 20 feet east/west and about 4-6 feet deep, and it is surrounded by earthen berms—piles of earth excavated from the interior. This depression, excavated in 2002 by archaeologist Donald Linebaugh then of the University of Kentucky, now at the University of Maryland, was determined to be the remains of a dugout house, built by Anna Byberg and her first husband Lars Christopherson, and used as a residence by the Christophersons and their children for nearly ten years.

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