With no timber for miles, Elias cut rectangles of sod and stacked them like bricks. His "soddy" was cool in the summer and warm in the winter, though it leaked mud during the rare, violent thunderstorms.
Success was never guaranteed. One year it was the "black blizzards" of dust; the next, a plague of locusts that ate the handles off his tools. sodbuster
Elias stood on 160 acres of nothing but wind and grass, a paper deed from the Homestead Act tucked into his waistcoat. To the bankers back East, this was "The Great American Desert." To Elias, it was the only dirt he would ever own. The First Break With no timber for miles, Elias cut rectangles
By the fifth year, the gray-green sea of grass was a patchwork of gold wheat and dark soil. Elias wasn't just a farmer; he was the man who "busted" the wild and turned it into the breadbasket of the world. Sodbusters Definition Us History One year it was the "black blizzards" of