As far as you could see, you could walk or ride a horse
without going through a fence.
Basically what Lewis and Clark saw.
(laughs)
♪
This is my grandpa's homestead.
They call it a homestead shack or a homestead house.
Homesteaders had to build a house
as one of the requirements to prove up on a homestead.
♪
I really admire and respect the people
that made this happen
or were able to stick it out
until they were established.
This is a clothesline.
This little hole is for the dog.
The people that did this were very tough, innovative people.
Right here we have, uh, the old coal stove, we call it.
This was the main heat source for here.
Wind chills I've seen as low as 90 below zero.
I would imagine that the stove was kept running day and night,
and he sat very close to it.
You can see the walls are thin.
No insulation.
A pitcher of water in here would freeze.
I'm sure he was looking forward to spring.
Right here is some of the coal out of the old coal mine.
Kept everything he owned in here.
Lanterns, and this is for washing clothes,
harnesses.
If you could look out here, you would see no fences,
no--of course, no buildings or hay piles or trees.
Everything was just rolling hills
with prairie grass.
♪
This is their house they built.
It's quite a bit bigger than the other one.
It has a wooden floor, nice stove, and stuff.
You know, when you get a lady,
you gotta clean your act up a little,
so as times got better,
then they built this one over here,
and this is the one that they spent
the rest of their life in.
♪
Most of them didn't last very long.
The ones that stayed here, I admire for sticking it out,
and I'm glad they did because now I get to be here.
♪
We raise 150 beef cows,
we have a feral-to-finish hog operation,
we also have about a hundred sheep.
♪
Spring wheat, durum, winter wheat,
malting barley for Busch,
peas, and camelina.
We hope to keep our roots in this area.
♪