City: Philip, SD

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (605) 433-5400

Address: SR 240

Description: You’ll experience something rare at this original 1909 sod dugout: an authentic sense of life on a prairie homestead, with all of its hardships and rewards. It’s not hard to imagine the covered wagon coming to a stop at this spot, to picture Ed and Alice Brown and their son, Charles, newly arrived from Nebraska, scanning the landscape and saying, “Yes, here. This is home.”The family dug a hole into a low hillside, plowed bricks from the hard soil, and built themselves a sod house with a kitchen and a bedroom. Later, they dug a root cellar, built a chicken coop and barn, and moved a wooden claim shack into place beside the “soddie”—then they had a proper parlor where they could relax and entertain their neighbors.Ed Brown died in 1920, but Alice stayed on the homestead with Charles until 1934, when she moved to California. The sod house was last occupied by bachelor George Carr until 1949, and then, abandoned, it started to decay. But in 1962 Keith Crew (who never lived more than 2 miles from the site) and his wife, Dorothy, started restoration work on the place. Today you can tour the grounds and authentically furnished buildings (still owned by the Crew family) at your own pace while prairie dogs scamper and scold, chickens roam and peck in the sweet-smelling grass, and the calls of songbirds drift on the air like voices from the past. Take it all in, and you’ll understand why the Browns and thousands like them were willing to sacrifice creature comforts to build a life on the Great Plains.Prairie Homestead was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and numerous prestigious publications carried articles about it—many of them are posted on the wall outside the gift shop. The shop has an excellent assortment of books about prairie life, featuring collections of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Willa Cather, and Mari Sandoz.The homestead, which is 2 miles south of I-90, exit 131, is open for tours during daylight hours between mid-Apr and mid-Oct. Admission prices are $6 for adults, and $5 for seniors, and $4 for youths ages 11 to 17, and under 11 are free with parent.