Little House On the Prairie

By 1916 wooden houses had replaced many of the sod houses that dotted the prairie in the early days of settlement there. Until the railroads connected the country, there was no way to transport the lumber for wooden houses. Almost no trees grew on the prairie to provide any lumber for building materials. The windmill at the left pumped water for the people who lived there and their cattle. A boy on the porch plays a gramophone (ancestor of the stereo and hi-fi of today) for entertainment. The homesteaders entertain a visitor that arrived in his fancy Studebaker automobile. This picture was taken in Boca County, Colorado.



Page last updated August 5, 2002.