This hardy pioneer built this sod house, or as locals call it, a soddy, back in 1894. Marshal McCully built the house using a half an acre of sod cut into 18 inch wide strips and stacked like bricks to make the 12 by 24 foot building. The roof was made from some of the few local small trees cut into rafters with 12 inches of sod on top. The floor was originally dirt but he surprised his wife by putting in a wood floor after a year or so. The ceiling had sheets hung from them to prevent rain, dirt, debris, snakes and insects from raining down on the residents. Most sod houses were meant to be lived in for no more than 5 years while the pioneer built a stick framed house. Marshal lived in it for 15 years until he finished his stick house. The building is now housed inside the museum to protect it from the elements so it can last another 129 years.
Most soddy houses had their walls covered with local newspapers but Marshal outdid himself by buying some wallpaper. This is the only little original piece left today. We like the idea of newsprint as it tells a story forever.
I wonder if Laurie is checking out the root cellar to see what would be stored there or if she is seeing if it would double as a tornado shelter.
Thought this placard regarding root cellars was very interesting.
Very frugal it appears. With inflation taken into account the $6.20 would be worth $222 today. Still pretty frugal.
Most folks know about 12 inches to a foot and 3 feet to a yard but…..I have heard the terms Rod, chain and furlong but had no idea of their relative sizes.
I certainly did not know what an acre was beyond 1 acre = 43,560 square feet, just about the size of a football field. Described as the amount of land one man and one oxen can plow in a day.
Very cool to see the actual deed given to homesteader Marshal McCully along with the provisions for a successful land grant after 5 years.
TAT Museum
With some time to kill folks in town said we should visit the TAT Museum downtown.
TAT stands for Transcontinental Air Transport. This later morphed into now defunct major airline TWA.
As Waynoka was the hub of activity for this new company they got visits from the likes of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. Way back in the day planes could not fly at night with no lighting so to get across the country they would land in Waynoka then many would take the train the rest of the way. This train portion of the journey gave birth to many cities along the route with hotels and restaurants run by the Harvey Corporation. This is akin to the Howard Johnson restaurant/motels along Route 66.
As we are from Upstate NY we will give a nod to the Syracuse China used in these exclusive restaurants. Each whistle stop restaurant served elegant food in finely decorated dining rooms. The term “Harvey Girls” emanates from the fact that women (all must be pretty and white) were hired on 6 month contracts to do all the service work at these restaurants/hotels. The contract laid out behavioral rules as well as the caveat that during this time they were not to get married.
We got a kick out of this advertisement poster for the Santa Fe Railroad. These were placed on billboards in the East trying to entice folks to vacation out in the Midwest.
We would say that if you are ever near the panhandle of Oklahoma, stop by these two fine institutions. No crowds and all the volunteers working there for their respective historical societies were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.
Man, surprising your spouse with a wood floor- simpler times!
Looks like their diet was quite vegetable heavy.
Fascinating to see the way things were not all that long ago, that we wouldn’t stand for today- such as contractual obligations not to wed and treating Native Americans like an exhibit. Cool to see how society has progressed.
Interesting note on Amelia Earhart, her ill fated voyage took off from Oakland municipal airport.
Did you hear that there was evidence found that seems to indicate that her and her navigator crashed and died on island waiting for rescue?