A dugout or dug-out, also known as a pit-house or earth lodge, is a shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground. Dugouts can be fully recessed into the earth, with a flat roof covered by ground, or dug into a hillside. They can also be semi-recessed, with a constructed wood or sod roof standing out. These structures are one of the most ancient types of human housing known to archaeologists, and the same methods have evolved into modern "earth shelter" technology.
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is a United States presidential memorial and a National Historic Landmark District in Lincoln City, Indiana. It preserves the farm site where Abraham Lincoln lived with his family from 1816 to 1830. During that time, he grew from a 7-year-old boy to a 21-year-old man. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and at least 27 other settlers were buried here in the Pioneer Cemetery. His sister Sarah Lincoln Grigsby was buried in the nearby Little Pigeon Baptist Church cemetery, across the street at Lincoln State Park.
The sod house or soddy was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, if the prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone, or the poverty of the settlers precluded purchasing standard building materials, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant, free, and could be used for house construction. Prairie grass has a much thicker, tougher root structure than a modern lawn.
Kyle Ranch or Kiel Ranch, was one of the earliest ranches established in Nevada's Las Vegas Valley. Founded by Conrad Kiel in 1875, today the location of the former ranch is in North Las Vegas, where the city maintains the remnants of the site as the "Kiel Ranch Historic Park." The original adobe structure, one of the oldest buildings in Las Vegas, a wooden shed known as the "Doll House," and the cemetery are all that remain after loss of buildings through fire and neglect. Also within the park is an artesian well and a small wetlands, a reminder of what drew travelers and early settlers to the area. Presently the ranch's location is memorialized with Nevada Historical Marker number 224.
Blackacre State Nature Preserve is a 271-acre (110 ha) nature preserve and historic homestead in Louisville, Kentucky. The preserve features rolling fields, streams, forests, and a homestead dating back to the 18th century. For visitors, the preserve features several farm animals including horses, goats, and cows, hiking trails, and a visitor's center in the 1844-built Presley Tyler home. Since 1981, it has been used by the Jefferson County Public Schools as the site of a continuing environmental education program. About 10,000 students visit the outdoor classroom each year.
Stranahan House is the home of Fort Lauderdale pioneers Frank and Ivy Stranahan. Built in 1901 as a trading post and converted into a residence for the Stranahans in 1906, the house is the oldest surviving structure in Broward County. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and today operates as a historic house museum. The House is open for guided tours at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. some days, and hosts special events throughout the year.
Nauvoo Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District containing the city of Nauvoo, Illinois. The historic district is nearly coterminous with the City of Nauvoo as it was incorporated in 1840, but it also includes the Pioneer Saints Cemetery, the oldest Mormon cemetery in the area, which is outside the town boundary.
The Cunningham Cabin is a double-pen log cabin in Grand Teton National Park in the US state of Wyoming. It was built as a homestead in Jackson Hole and represents an adaptation of an Appalachian building form to the West. The cabin was built just south of Spread Creek by John Pierce Cunningham, who arrived in Jackson Hole in 1885 and subsisted as a trapper until he established the Bar Flying U Ranch in 1888. The Cunninghams left the valley for Idaho in 1928, when land was being acquired for the future Grand Teton National Park.
Mormon Row is a historic district in Teton County, Wyoming, United States that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Thomas Leavitt House, a brick house built in the nineteenth century in Bunkerville, Nevada, United States, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Buckner Homestead Historic District, near Stehekin, Washington in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area incorporates a group of structures relating to the theme of early settlement in the Lake Chelan area. Representing a time period of over six decades, from 1889 to the 1950s, the district comprises 15 buildings, landscape structures and ruins, and over 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land planted in orchard and criss-crossed by hand-dug irrigation ditches. The oldest building on the farm is a cabin built in 1889. The Buckner family bought the farm in 1910 and remained there until 1970, when the property was sold to the National Park Service. The Buckner Cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The rest of the Buckner farm became a historic district in 1989. Today, the National Park Service maintains the Buckner homestead and farm as an interpretive center to give visitors a glimpse at pioneer farm life in the Stehekin Valley.
The Faraway Ranch Historic District is part of the Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona, and preserves an area associated with the final conflicts with the local Apache, one of the last frontier settlements, and in particular, its association with the people who promoted the establishment of the Chiricahua National Monument. Faraway Ranch is located in Bonita Canyon, which lies at an approximate altitude of 5160 feet and opens in a southwesterly direction into the Sulphur Springs Valley.
The James Cant Ranch is a pioneer ranch complex in Grant County in eastern Oregon, United States. The ranch is located on both sides of the John Day River in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The ranch was originally homesteaded by Floyd Officer in 1890. Officer sold the property to James Cant in 1910. Cant increased the size of the property and built a modern ranch complex on the west bank of the river. The National Park Service bought the ranch from the Cant family in 1975, and incorporated the property into the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The National Park Service used the main house as a visitor center until 2003. Today, the Cant Ranch complex is preserved as an interpretive site showing visitors an early 20th-century livestock ranch. The James Cant Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Alex Halone House in Thermopolis, Wyoming, was built by Finnish immigrant Alex Halone for his personal residence in 1909–1910. Halone, a stonemason, built several stone structures in Thermopolis. Three generations of the Halone family were stonemasons. The grounds include a log Finnish sauna built by Alex and Eugene Halone with assistance from Lauri Suikaonen in 1946–51.
The historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park include a variety of buildings and built remains that pre-date the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, together with facilities built by the National Park Service to serve park visitors. Many of these places and structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pre-Park Service structures include homestead cabins from the earliest settlement of Jackson Hole, working ranches that once covered the valley floor, and dude ranches or guest ranches that catered to the tourist trade that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, before the park was expanded to encompass nearly all of Jackson Hole. Many of these were incorporated into the park to serve as Park Service personnel housing, or were razed to restore the landscape to a natural appearance. Others continued to function as inholdings under a life estate in which their former owners could continue to use and occupy the property until their death. Other buildings, built in the mountains after the initial establishment of the park in 1929, or in the valley after the park was expanded in 1950, were built by the Park Service to serve park visitors, frequently employing the National Park Service Rustic style of design.
Hot Springs, also known as Boquillas Hot Springs, and Langford Hot Springs is a former thermal spring resort in what is now Big Bend National Park in Texas. Hot Springs was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The Gibraltar District School No. 2 is a historic one-room school on the Door Peninsula in the town of Gibraltar, Door County, Wisconsin, United States. Built in the 1860s to serve children in the village of Ephraim, it operated as a school for approximately eighty years before closing and being converted into a museum. It has been designated a historic site because of its place in the area's history.
The Sandford Dugout is a dugout house in Sioux County, Nebraska. The house is located 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Nebraska Highway 29 and approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of Mitchell; its exact location is restricted. Pioneer Joseph L. Sandford built the house in 1897 on a homestead claim. His dugout, like most pioneer dugouts, was carved into the side of a hill. Settlers in the Great Plains commonly built dugout houses or sod homes at the time, as more conventional building materials were difficult to obtain in the region. However, the dugouts were usually considered temporary homes and ultimately abandoned; as a result, most of them fell into disrepair, and the Sandford Dugout is likely the only intact dugout remaining in Nebraska. The Sandford property also contained a house, a barn, a well, a privy, and two corrals; these structures have largely been replaced or demolished, and the location of the well and privy are unknown.
Eagar Townsite Historic District is a section of the town of Eagar, Arizona which has been designated a National Historic Place. Sitting on roughly 54 acres, the site contains 37 structures, 21 of which have historical significance. The period of significance is from 1886, the year the townsite was founded, through 1942, which represents the significant period of development of the town. The site was added to the Register on July 23, 1993.
