Washita County, Oklahoma
This bit of Cloud Chief history submitted by Doyle Fenn.

CLOUD CHIEF

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Pioneer residence at Cloud Chief, Oklahoma Territory in 1892. [Photo #7540, Archives & Manuscripts Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society]

Dugout home in Oklahoma Territory [Photo #1907 1.3, Morris Collection, Archives & Manuscripts Division of Oklahoma Historical Society]

The pioneers had to be creative and innovative when they arrived on the prairie of Washita County. The cottonwood tree was plentiful but produced a very poor quality of lumber. It would warp and pull nails out of the studs. Many of the pioneers lived in tents or their covered wagons until they could make better provisions. Following the tent and covered wagon, the most common home was a dugout or half dugout. A dugout was a hole in the ground or side of a hill with logs across the top. Tin or cottonwood lumber was used to cover the cracks, and two or three feet of dirt was placed over the top. Grass was planted on top to prevent the "roof' from washing away. A stove or fire place provided warmth and cooking heat. A cow skin or hand-hewn lumber made a door. Sometimes the settler was fortunate enough to panel the walls with lumber. Many of the settlers brought some furniture with them. If not, they improvised with what nature provided.

A visitor at Cloud Chief during its earliest days asked a resident why there were so many mounds of dirt in Cloud Chief. He quickly learned that the mounds of dirt were homes, the school, court house, and businesses.

Since lumber was scarce and the closest source was El Reno, many pioneers turned to the good earth for building material. They made sod bricks or blocks by mixing grass or straw with the wet earth. When it dried, it made a good building material. The adobe walls were good insulation against the heat and cold; however, the sod from the red earth in Washita county was not the best to resist rains. Plastered walls, however, withstood the elements quite well.

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Sod House of Oklahoma Territory, location unknown. Western History Collection, University of Oklahoma Library.

Charlie W. Maddox rock house -1927. Photo by William N. Masters, who lived in the house in 1927.

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Sod house near Cordell in 1903. [Photo by Ira J. Smith]

Sod house near Cloud Chief in 1903. [Photo by Ira J. Smith]

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Cheyenne Chief Little Big Mouth's Tipi depicts the change in the types of homes that came with the arrival of the plains Indians in Oklahoma Territory.

Businesses of Early Cloud Chief

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Commercial Hotel by 1900 was the best hotel in Cloud Chief.

Iron Hotel, changed to New Iron Hotel after being moved to Cordell, was the courthouse until 1895.