Dugout Dwellings: Pioneer Housing in 19th Century Minnesota

According to historic research compiled by Linebaugh and his crew (including a large number of Byberg-Christopherson-Goulson family volunteers), Anna Byberg was born in Byneset, Norway on December 3, 1847. She came to the territory of Wisconsin with her brother Ole and perhaps her sister Emma in 1868. She married a 35-year old Norwegian farmer named Lars Christopherson in LaCrosse Wisconsin in 1869 and likely traveled to their new homestead on the Chippewa River later that year. Lars probably built that dugout (perhaps with the help of neighbors) in 1869 or 1870, and Lars and Anna moved in and stayed there for nearly a decade, until Lars died in 1878. They had five children, but two died young, like Lars of scarlet fever. The next year, Anna married neighbor Hans Goulson, a second-generation Norwegian farmer; Hans and Anna lived in the dugout for at least another year, while a frame farmhouse was being built. The building was completed and the family moved in by 1881.

Dugouts and Archaeology

The dugout was subjected to archaeological investigation during the summer of 2002, and that included systematic shovel testing, and the placement of four test units and three trenches. Linebaugh’s analysis of the excavations suggest that the dugout had low sidewalls and a wooden roof. The roof was probably pole-rafter construction, and probably made of a combination of basswood, ash, elm, oak, and cottonwood, all woods likely available at the edge of the Chippewa river. The dugout was probably 18-20 feet long (north/south) by 13-15 feet wide (east/west). The door opened to a southern light. The 200-300 square foot area included one room only, with interior walls of bare earth, with a packed earthen floor and log, woven branches or sod block ceiling. Domestic artifacts probably related to the dugout occupation included a knife handle, a brass grommet, and a range of animal bones (white tailed deer, rabbit, birds, chicken and bivalves. Census data state that the Christophersons had milk cows and working oxen; and the Goulsons kept poultry as well.

Dugouts and Pioneers

After Anna married Hans, they built a new frame farmhouse, with over twice the space of the dugout, and clear pane windows. Although traditional notions of what early European settlers lived (generally a ‘log cabin’), in the northern Midwest, a dugout shelter could be and was a popular choice for some, inexpensive, convenient and habitable.

For Further Reading

Donald W. Linebaugh. 2003. Digging into a Dugout House (Site 21SW17): The Archaeology of Norwegian Immigrant Anna Byberg Christopherson Goulson, Swenoda Township, Swift County, Minnesota. Program for Archaeological Research, Department of Anthropology, the University of Kentucky.
--- 2005. Excavating the Dugout House of Norwegian Immigrant Anna Byberg Christopherson Goulson, Swift County, Minnesota. Historical Archaeology 39(2):63-88.

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