In the 1874-1888 era the High Plains (a sea of grass) had no native timber, stone, or adobe building materials. Homes were dugouts, or, if settlers' wagons went some 300 miles for lumber, half-dugouts. Dugouts were warm in winter, cool in summer. Some were carpeted and cloth-lined. Some had an extra room, for the schoolteacher or other guests. The cooking and heating stoves burned buffalo chips, cow chips. This exact replica of a Carson County half-dugout was donated by Opal Purvines to honor her parents, the John F. Weatherlys, and other pioneer families.