Posted in South Dakota June 28, 2016 by

These 9 Houses In South Dakota From The 1930s Will Open Your Eyes To A Different Time

Since we just featured some awesome antique stores here that have things from decades back offering a small view into what it might have been like to live at that time, I thought it’d be interesting to dive a little deeper and check out some old photographs from the 1930s of houses here in South Dakota. These homes, from the poorest types hit hard by the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, to fanciful mansions in cities, to the temporary dwellings of those with high hopes of making it rich, provided shelter to all walks of life that tried to make it here in the state’s earlier days.

Everything is a lot different now, and it’s hard to fully understand what it was like then, so let’s take a trip back in time…

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1. A sod house - common for most of the original homesteaders - in Pennington County. 1936
Arthur Rothstein/yale.edu
2. A house considered old even in 1937 in a mining ghost town near Deadwood
Arthur Rothstein/yale.edu
3. Earth dugouts, like this one near Rapid City, provided shelter to many during the hardships of the Dust Bowl. 1936
Arthur Rothstein/yale.edu
4. This large and frivolous home in Aberdeen stood out from the rest. 1939
John Vachon/yale.edu
5. A patchwork homesteader's house, made from whatever materials at hand, and a couple of its residents. 1936
Arthur Rothstein/yale.edu
6. This literal mobile home was the only shelter this family had. They were on their way west in search of better work, struggling from the Great Depression. 1936
Arthur Rothstein/yale.edu
7. A gold prospector's shack. The promise of gold drew many to the state, but usually for only a very short time before they moved on. 1937
Russell Lee/yale.edu
8. A lone homestead out in the Black Hills. Though weathered and old, it was still inhabited at this time. 1937
Russel Lee/yale.edu
9. A mud-covered log cabin. 1939
NARA/Wikimedia

The history of South Dakota is certainly a rich one, full of both hardships and prosperity. Do you have any family stories or history in the state?