Prairie Homestead

In 1909, Ed and Alice Brown filed a claim under the Homestead Act for 160 acres in the Badlands of South Dakota. They piled their belongings in a covered wagon and emigrated from Nebraska, arriving at their claim in early autumn. They immediately dug their home into the side of the hill, constructing some outside walls of sod (held together by the entangled roots of prairie grass) and making use of a nearby cottonwood grove for necessary timber.

Ed and Alice were joined by hundreds of other families who filed similar claims and became (more or less) their next-door neighbors. By 1916, 80% of the South Dakota homesteaders had given up, relinquished their claims and returned to whence they came. But Ed and Alice, braving the elements, hung in there, expanded and "prospered." Ed died in 1920, but Alice lived on with her bachelor son, Charles, until 1934, when ill health forced her to move to Long Beach to be with her daughter. Even then she longed to return to the homestead.


Charles stayed until 1936 when he also had to leave because of ill health, selling the homestead to a neighbor who remained there until 1949 when it was abandoned. It suffered some in the ensuing years but was restored in 1962 and can be seen today. The original dugout/sod house is much the same as it was in 1909. A video at the gift shop/visitor center tells the story pretty well and you can tour the homestead at its leisure. We thought it more "comfortable" than we would have anticipated but left with a question unanswered by video or other information. What was Ed and Alice's life like prior to the homestead? What drove them to leave Nebraska for such harsh conditions?