171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 171

Chapter 12 The Sod House Frontier Homesteading on the Prairies

It is still bitterly cold that April of 1883 when to be unloaded, pushed out of the mud, and the Willoughby family unloads all its posses- then reloaded. sions from the colonist train at Moose Jaw. Only a few kilometres can be covered They have come early in the spring so there each day. Every night there are the added will be time to get a crop planted that year. tasks of setting up camp, gathering fuel, and Next day at dawn, the wagons are loaded cooking meals. But finally the journey ends. and they set out on the trail. They are on their Guided by rough maps, the settlers begin to way to their new homestead. They have to search in brush and prairie grass for the sur- move slowly because the horses, which they veyors’ stakes. When they find them, they are have brought with them, are not used to west- . But home is really just a spot on the ern trails. A few of the settlers have oxen. prairies. There is not another sign of human Though slower, the oxen are stronger. Oxen life for as far as the eye can see. can also be used to pull a plough and break through the tough prairie sod. If all else fails, oxen can be eaten. After a few days on the trail, a terrible spring blizzard strikes. The travellers are trapped in for three days. Some of their horses die during the storm. A few settlers give up then and there. They head back to Moose Jaw. The others struggle on. They leave some of their pos- sessions on the prairie to lighten the loads for the sur- viving horses. The prairie wind cuts their faces like Reflecting razors. Wagons have to be 1. Describe the scene in the photograph. floated across icy rivers and 2. How do you think this camping lifestyle compared to streams. As the weather the life the homesteading families came from? What clears, spring mud buries qualities did they need to survive? wagon wheels to the axles. 3. If you lived a poor life or faced hardships in your home Sometimes the wagons have country at the time, would you have come to ? Why or why not?

171 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 172

172 Unit 2: The Development of Western Canada

Skill Building: Making Predictions

Can you imagine what it must have been like to Key Steps prepare for a new life in the West in the 1880s? 1. Find out what you already know. In groups, Imagine the planning you would have to do consider the questions in the web diagram below. before setting out.You could not just stop at a store along the way to buy something you had 2. Make predictions (educated guesses) to answer forgotten.And you couldn’t take much with you. the questions.Write down your predictions. All your possessions would have to be loaded on a wagon and taken on trails across the 3. Share your predictions with those of other prairie to your homestead.You would not have groups.Vote on each prediction using the cate- much information on your new homestead gories “true,” “maybe true,” and “not true.” either. Perhaps you might have a little informa- tion from people who had relatives in the West 4. Read the material in the chapter to confirm or from advertisements. your predictions. So where would you start to plan? Put your- self in the position of the early homesteaders. Reflect and Evaluate You will be travelling to Moose Jaw by train, and 5. Reflect on what you have read. Did you find from there, to your new homestead.You need answers to the questions? What questions are to make some predictions about what lies ahead still unanswered? What new knowledge did you for you. learn? How many of your predictions were true?

When to go? What What route to take? is the best time of Exactly how will you get the year to travel to your homestead? and arrive?

What to bring? Think carefully about What will your first your essential needs most important for the journey and HOMESTEADING tasks be on arrival? when you arrive.What ON THE PRAIRIE For example, you will will you be able to buy have to look after food in the West? and .What else?

What problems might you encounter? Try to anticipate What will you be problems and have plans feeling? ready to deal with them. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 173

Chapter 12: The Sod House Frontier 173

Surveying the Land A PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP As early as the summer of 1869, the govern- ment had sent surveyors to the West. They 33 35 were there to measure and map the vast west- 31 32 34 36 ern lands. Once the land had been surveyed, it could be divided into farms for settlers. All the 30 29 28 27 26 25 land west of Fort Garry to the Rocky Mountains was to be surveyed. 19 20 21 22 23 24 There were three steps in the division of the land: 18 17 16 15 14 13 1. The land was divided into townships. Each township was a square whose sides were 7 8 9 10 11 12 nearly 10 km in length. 6 5 4 3 2 1 2. Each township was subdivided into 36 sec- tions. A section was a perfect square with each Free homestead lands side measuring 1.6 km. School lands Hudson's Bay Co. lands 3. Each section was then divided into quar- N W N E ters. A quarter section contained 65 ha. Each Railway lands quarter was marked out by direction such as northwest (NW) and southeast (SE). Quarter Sections S W S E

Fast Forward Dinosaur Bones In 1884, a scientist with the Canadian Geological Survey made a dramatic discovery while working in . The scientist was Joseph Tyrrell. He was looking for coal in the vast, dry area of southern Alberta known as the . Paddling his canoe along the Red Deer River, he noticed a brown sub- stance sticking out of the steep banks. Climbing up the slope to explore further, he cleared away some dirt and found a fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur. It was , cousin to the Tyrannosaurus. This area around Drumheller, Alberta turned out to be one of the richest beds of dinosaur fossils in the world. Today, over a century later, the area is still world famous. You can visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller or nearby Dinosaur Provincial Park. Find out more from the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s web site at http://tyrrell.magtech.ab.ca/. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 174

174 Unit 2: The Development of Western Canada

Dominion Land Act 1872 The Dominion Land Act was passed in 1872. In 1882, the first woman to take up her It was also called the Homestead Act. It said own homestead arrived at Fort Calgary in that any adult, or head of a family, could claim a quarter section of land. Homesteaders could the North-West Territories. In the mid choose only from the land set aside for home- 1880s, there were still far fewer women steads. All they had to pay was a $10 registra- than men in the West. Women worked on tion fee. They had to live on the land for six the homesteads. Many felt the isolation months each year, build a house, and start to cultivate the land. If the settlers carried out since homesteads were often very far these conditions in three years, full ownership apart. There were few other women to was turned over to them. If the homesteaders talk to. wanted, they could buy more land cheaply for about $5 a hectare.

Choosing a Homestead

You have applied for a homestead in the prairie township shown here.You are about to select the quarter section you wish for your farm.The map pro- vides some information to help you make a decision. 1. On a copy of the map, number the sections in the township. Cross out the sections that are not available for homesteads. 2. Examine the map and note the features of the land. 3. List the advantages and disadvantages of each of these features from the point of view of a homesteader. 4. Make a decision about which Legend quarter section you would select river creek as your homestead. Remember that you may wish to add swamp dry creek bed neighbouring land in the future. Give reasons for your choice. lake forest

hills

railway prairie trail 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 175

Chapter 12: The Sod House Frontier 175

Building a Home nights. There were very few windows in a sod When settlers arrived on their new homestead, building because the holes would weaken the the first thing they had to do was build a shel- walls. ter. Tents would do for the summer, but not for Besides being cheap to build, a sod house the very cold prairie winter. was almost completely fireproof. Dreaded In the wooded areas of eastern Canada, pio- prairie fires just could not burn down a sod neers built their first shelter of logs. They also house. But if it rained all day outside, the roof used the plentiful supply of wood for fuel. of a sod house became so full of water that it However, over much of the prairies, there were rained for two days inside. Another disadvan- no large trees. The settlers used the only mater- tage was that mice and insects sometimes came ial available—prairie sod. The sod house and with the sod! the sod barn became the mark of the prairie Neighbours would gather around to help frontier. For fuel, there was dried buffalo newcomers put up a sod house and barn. This manure. was called a sodding bee. At a bee, a sod The greatest appeal of sod buildings was house could be built in a day. Neighbours pro- that they were cheap. Almost all the material vided plenty of pies, cakes, roasts, fresh bread, that went into them was free. A family reported and other good things to eat as well. At night, a that the total cash cost of their sod house was fiddle might be brought out and an open-air $2.97. That was for one window, roof jack, door dance held to welcome the new family into the hinges, and door latch. community. The most primitive sod shelter was a . A hole was dug in a hillside and piles of sod built up around it. A dugout was a safe place in a windstorm or tor- nado. But one disadvan- tage was that animals or even people sometimes dropped through the roof! Thousands of the sod houses were built all across the prairies. The thick walls kept the buildings warm in winter and cool in summer. Even in the middle of To construct a sod house, trenches were ploughed for the bottom winter, water in a kettle of the walls.Then sod was chosen from a dry, grassy creek bed.The would not freeze in a sod sod had to be thick with plenty of roots.The pieces of sod were house if the fire went out cut into strips and hauled to the building site on wagons.They were at night. By contrast, in a placed grass-side down and piled like bricks, but no mortar was lumber building, water in used. If it was possible to find light poplar poles, they were placed a kettle froze during the on the tops of the walls to form a roof. Hay was spread on the winter poles, and sod placed on top. Most sod houses had a dirt floor and a dirt roof. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 176

176 Unit 2: The Development of Western Canada

Culture Link Some Early Homesteaders

The Icelanders settlers didn’t arrive until late in ne of the first groups to the summer. They had no time Otake up homesteads on the to build houses. They were prairies were the Icelanders. One forced to live in buffalo tents group of 400 docked at Québec belonging to the Hudson’s Bay in 1874. They were fleeing vol- Company. There were many canic eruptions in their home deaths from starvation that win- country. Though they were on ter. They were without cows, their way to in the United and so there was no milk for the States, the Canadian government children. The fishing nets they invited them to stay in Canada. brought from Iceland had mesh They agreed when they were that was too large to catch lake The Icelanders arrived on promised freedom and Canadian fish. Wild game was scarce. the west shore of Lake Winnipeg.They named citizenship, a large tract of land Many settlers, young and old, their settlement Gimli, or where they could farm and fish died of scurvy. Nevertheless, paradise, after the home together, and their own language Jon Gudmundson regularly pub- of the Norse gods.An and customs. lished a small newspaper that Icelandic community still But their first winter was a first winter. He wrote it in his exists there today. harsh one and set in early. The own handwriting and read it aloud to groups as he travelled from house to house. The following year, 1876, a smallpox epi- demic struck the colony. Many more of the Icelanders died. But the colony survived. The Icelanders went on to develop the inland fish- ing industry in the lakes and rivers of Manitoba. Today, Winnipeg has one of the largest Icelandic populations of any city outside Iceland. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 177

Chapter 12: The Sod House Frontier 177

In the early 1900s, Margret Benedictsson and other women in the Icelandic community campaigned with women in Manitoba for the right to vote. By January 1916, their efforts met with success. Manitoba was the first province in Canada to grant its women citizens the vote.

The Mennonites Another early group of settlers, the Mennonites, came from Russia to find religious freedom. It was part of their faith that they should never go to war. In 1874, they left their homeland when the Russian government ordered them to serve in the army. Between 1874 and 1876, the Mennonites set- The Mennonites were the first to prove the tled west of the Red River. They were already open prairie could be farmed successfully. How experienced in farming the prairies of Russia. would you describe this farm? What signs are They knew that the prairie soil would be good there of prosperity? for growing grain. It was like the rich farmland they had left. The Mennonites were generally a peace- 1. Work in groups. On a map of Manitoba, find loving, hard-working people. Within two or three the location of Gimli. Make a list of other years, they had turned the prairie into outstand- unusual place names you find in the prairie ing farms. In 1876, J. C. McLagan wrote: provinces. Share your list with other groups. Choose five place names and see if you can When I visited these people, they had discover their origins. only been in the province two years. 2. Imagine you are Jon Gudmundson.Write an Yet, in a long ride I took across many article for your newspaper and read it to a miles of prairies, which but yesterday group. Discuss how it reflects life for the were absolutely bare . . . I passed vil- early homesteaders. lage after village, homestead after 3. Do some research on another group of people homestead, furnished with all the con- who settled in the West in the late 1800s or veniences of European comfort and up- early 1900s such as the Doukhobors. Find out to-date farming methods. On either why they came, how they made the journey to side of the road cornfields were the West, where they settled, and how they already ripe for harvest, and pastures lived. Are their descendants still there today? were full of herds of cattle. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 178

178 Unit 2: The Development of Western Canada

Colonization 001110010011110100011101000 conducted in correct hunt- Companies 100110101000111010011101011 ing gear—red jackets and 001010110101001110001101010 Sometimes the Canadian 010110111100101100001011010Netsurfer riding boots. It must have government sold large 001101101010101001101011010 been a strange sight to o100101010010100100101010010 amounts of land to indi- 000010101100101001001010101 stumble on the village of 010111010100101111011100001Sod houses were viduals or colonization 100101001011010100101010101also built by people Cannington Manor in companies. The person 101000011100100111101000111 Saskatchewan in the 1880s. 010001001101010001110100111who settled the or company would find 010110010101101010011100011American prairies. The mill that was built and bring out groups of 010100101101111001011000010View a collection of brought honour to the 110100011011010101010011110 settlers. One of the most 100011101000100110101000111photographs at Manor. Its flour won a gold unusual experiments 001110010011110100011101000www.twsu.edu/library/ medal at the world’s fair 100110101000111010011101011specialcollections/ involved Captain Pierce 001010110101001110001101010 held in Paris in 1885. 01011011110010110000101101095-20-a.html. and Cannington Manor. 001101101010101001101011010For a fascinating Horses raised at the Manor Captain Pierce’s dream 100101010010100100101010010 also won an international 000010101100101001001010101account of a man in was to set up a colony of 010111010100101111011100001Nebraska who built a reputation by winning 100101001011010100101010101sod house in the old well-to-do English families 101000011100100111101000111 many racing awards. in southeastern 010001001101010001110100111style with his own But the colony gradu- 010110010101101010011100011hands see Saskatchewan. The 010100101101111001011000010www.thehistorynet.com/ ally began to break up. 010110111100101100001011010 Cannington people passed 001101101010101001101011010HistoricTraveler/ Many families moved back their time in dances, 100101010010100100101010010articles/ to England. Some of the 000010101100101001001010101 sports, and boating on 1000111010001001101010001110696_cover.htm. young men went off to Cannington Lake. They fight in the British army or built a racetrack and raced to look for gold in British thoroughbred horses. One family imported fox Columbia. Only a few families remained to hounds from England and started the farm. By the 1890s, the golden days of Cannington Manor Hunt Club. The hunts were Cannington Manor had ended.

The settlers at Cannington Manor arrived in the wilderness with dinner jackets and evening gowns, cricket bats, and tennis rackets.They had little or no experience with farming.They brought ser- vants or hired to farm for them. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 179

Chapter 12: The Sod House Frontier 179

Fast Forward

legends telling of how the settlement got its name. One Place Names story describes a battle between the Blackfoot and Many place names on Canada’s prairies have Cree. A medicine man was killed during the battle and a fascinating history. Regina, before the his hat went floating down the South Saskatchewan North-West Mounted Police moved there, was River. After that the place became known as Medicine called “Pile of Bones.” Medicine Hat, Alberta, Hat. Another story tells that Moose Jaw was named was named in 1882 by a North-West Mounted after a traveller fixed a Red River cart with a moose’s Police corporal. He may have translated the jaw there, but the name may actually describe the Blackfoot (Siksika) word for “head-dress of a shape of the Moose Jaw River as it flows through the medicine man,” which described the shape of a town. Other names have European origins. Calgary, for small hill. But there are also many Aboriginal example, was named after a castle in Scotland.

Activities Understanding Concepts

1. Add these new terms to your Factfile. township Dominion Land Act sodding bee section sod house colonization company quarter section dugout

2. Describe how the land in the West was made ready for settlers. 3. a) Why did people leave their homelands for Canada in the 1880s? b) Why do people move to Canada from other countries today? 4. Outline the terms of the Dominion Land Act in 1872. Digging Deeper

5. MODEL In groups, build a model of a prairie sod house. Include a short report outlining the steps in its construction and how it is uniquely suited to the prairie environment.

6. WRITE Imagine you are a new settler living in a sod house on the prairie. Write a letter to your family back home. Describe life on the prairie and the advantages and disadvantages of living in your sod house. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 180

180 Unit 2: The Development of Western Canada

7. INTERVIEW You are a reporter for a newspaper. Interview one of the following people. a) Joseph Tyrrell b) a visitor to a Mennonite settlement c) a settler at Cannington Manor d) a member of the Icelanders’ settlement at Gimli Prepare questions beforehand and role play the interview with a partner. Keep an audiotape and write a short report on your findings.

8. WRITE/CREATE Imagine you are the editor of a small newspaper in one of the early prairie settlements.What types of news, articles, advertisements, etc. might your newspaper include? Work in groups and create a small four-page newspaper for the settlement. Making New Connections

9. DISCUSS Divide your class into three groups. Imagine that you are about to move to a place that is quite different from where you are living now. One group is moving to a town in another region of Canada, one group is moving to a town in Australia, and one group is moving to a town in Saudi Arabia. In your groups, discuss how this move will affect your way of life.What changes do you think will be easy to make? What changes will be difficult? What could you do to make these changes easier? What features of your present way of life would you not want to change? Summarize the changes you think you will face and their effects in the following chart.

Changes Easy/Difficult Effects on Life Why? Language Customs Technology Clothing Values and Beliefs

Elect a spokesperson from your group to present your ideas to the class.

10. TIME CAPSULE Imagine you have discovered a time capsule left by a home- steader in the 1880s.What do you think the time capsule might contain? List some items. Justify your choices. 171-181 120820 11/1/04 2:55 PM Page 181

Chapter 12: The Sod House Frontier 181

11. VIEW/CREATE Work in groups.You are documentary filmmakers. Choose a scene from this chapter that you think people today should remember and that tells about an important moment from this period. Script, role play, and videotape the scene. Keep your film to one minute.The following are some suggestions. a) Joseph Tyrrell’s discovery of Albertosaurus b) the arrival of the Icelanders at Gimli c) a legend telling about the naming of a prairie town d) a sodding bee