The Ferrell Place, Sioux County, Nebraska, 2013

Mrs. Ferrell is said to have remarked that this one-and-a-half-story sod house was the warmest home she ever lived in. Homesteaders often built sod houses because of the low costs and simplicity of construction. Sod was cut into ribbons three-to-six inches thick and one-to-three feet long, with the grass-side down, and the seams were staggered to form the walls. Two or three of these ribbons gave the walls thickness, and on every fourth layer sod bricks were laid crosswise for added strength. Some sod houses have been plastered over, fitted with new roofs and are still in use; unrestored examples are extremely rare. The skeletal remains here are those of a coyote.

Edgar Simon, Pennington County, South Dakota, 2014

When not writing poetry or accounts of local history, Edgar Simon, a fifth-generation farmer and rancher, works on his invitation-only Simon’s Schoolhouse Museum, which has had a thousand visitors since it opened in 1972. He points out that unlike other museums, which have only one of any particular item on display at a time, he tries to collect and present every possible variation of the objects that fascinate him.