Homesteaders on the plains usually built homes of sod.
Sod houses were first built when homesteaders started settling towards the western United States. Beginning in 1862, people could pay a fee to homestead on a parcel of land, and after five years of work, the land would be theirs.
By the middle of the 1880's, grasshopper and breaking plows were created and developed, and they greatly simplified the cutting of sodto be used in homes.
