“50 Years of Historic Preservation” celebration and presentation by Dr. Deena Fisher, Sod House Museum

Visit the Sod House Museum southeast of Aline to celebrate fifty years of preservation! On Saturday, October 28, at 10 am Dr. Deena Fisher will give a presentation about the history of the sod house and OHS efforts to preserve Oklahoma’s only remaining sod house built by a homesteader.

At one time, thousands of sod houses dotted the plains of North America. This two-room soddy, built by Marshal McCully in August 1894, is the only remaining sod house in Oklahoma that was built by a homesteader. McCully took part in the largest of Oklahoma’s land runs when the Cherokee Outlet opened for settlement at noon on September 16, 1893. McCully first lived in a one-room dugout, hollowed out of a ravine bank. He built the two-room sod house in 1894 using blocks of the thick buffalo grass blanketing Oklahoma’s prairies.

The McCully family lived in the sod house from 1894 until 1909 when they built a large, two-story frame house. They continued to use the soddy for storage until 1963. On December 31, 1963, the OHS acquired the sod house. It remains in its original location, and a cover structure was built in 1967 to protect it from the elements. Visitors can walk through the furnished sod house and imagine what life was like for Oklahoma’s early settlers.

The Sod House Museum is located southeast of Aline on State Highway 8. For more information please contact Director Renee Trindle at 580-463-2441 or sodhouse@okhistory.org.