Outdoor Exhibits

Seen below are just a few of the outdoor exhibits at the Trail Center.

 

Visiting the sod house at the Santa Fe Trail Center is to truly experience settler life. Recontructed after the first sod house was destroyed in a storm it is a replica of a typical high plains home. Each sod block measured two feet long, one foot wide and four inches deep and weighed fifty pounds when the walls were laid up. Pressure from weight and erosion from the weather have diminished the blocks somewhat but still on a hot, windy summer day visitors immediately notice the relative coolness and the quiet inside of the thick walls. Early settlers also found that sod homes were easy to keep warm in the winter.

 

The c. 1880's limestone cooling house was moved from a nearby farmstead. It was disassembled stone by stone. A diagram and many hours of volunteer labor were used to reassemble the building. When the cooling house was being used, a windmill pumped water into tanks inside the building which were used to store food items. The natural temperature of the water kept the food from spoiling. The overflow was used to irrigate a garden or fill a stock tank just outside the building.