Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes: A Field School

Instructor Essay Enrollment Options HIST 430 Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes (3 hours regular undergraduate credit) HIST 695 Field Experience - (3-6 hours regular graduate credit) HIST/EDUC 600 Field School (4 hours professional development graduate credit) Learning Vacations (non-credit) - contact Suzzanne Kelley Preliminary and follow-up discussions will take place via the Facebook group established for the field school, Prairie Earth. Field School Calendar Course Requirements HIST 430 Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes (3 hours regular undergraduate credit) HIST 695 Field Experience - (3-6 hours regular graduate credit) HIST/EDUC 600 Field School (4-6 hours professional development graduate credit) Learning Vacations (non-credit) - contact Suzzanne Kelley Financial Aid All participants in the field school will receive partial defrayment of housing expenses from Preservation North Dakota. Details will be posted here. The NDSU Center for Heritage Renewal will provide free lunches to participants while working at the Hutmacher site. Local historical society staff from North Dakota may be eligible for assistance from the Heritage Training Scholarship Program of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Apply to the SHSND; funding (pending legislative appropriation) may be limited. Release Forms NDSU Informed Consent PND Hold Harmless Property Owner Hold Harmless

Experiential learning is at the heart of Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes. Participants in the field school take part in the restoration of an amazing and significant historic property - the Hutmacher Farmstead, in Dunn County, North Dakota. The Hutmacher house and outbuilding walls are constructed of sandstone mortared with clay, both quarried on the farm. The roof uses ridgepoles and rafters locally cut and covered with successive layers of brush (chokecherry, plum), flax straw, clay, and aggregate. The house was built by the children of German-Russian immigrants and was occupied into the 1970s. In order to broaden the learning experience, participants also will tour and study examples of the earth building traditions of the various cultures to occupy the West River country of the northern plains: Mandan & Hidatsa earth lodges Sod houses of Anglo-Americans Earth houses of the Germans from Russia Depending on the enrollment option chosen, students will engage in preparatory readings and study prior to the field experience, write curricular materials adapted from the content of the course, or pursue independent research projects springing from it. Tom Isern Suzzanne Kelley Instructors of the field school are Tom Isern (Professor of History & University Distinguished Professor at NDSU, founding director of the Center for Heritage Renewal) and Suzzanne Kelley (historian & editor, PhD candidate at NDSU, president of Preservation North Dakota). Tom is instructor of record for regular undergraduate or graduate credit; Suzzanne (an experienced public-school teacher) is instructor of record for the teacher workshops and coordinator of learning vacation experiences; and they share overall responsibility for organization and management of the field school. Who will benefit from the field school? Degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students seeking a rich, hands-on learning experience Historic preservation professionals desiring professional development in earth building restoration and interpretation Teachers loking for an active option in continuing education with direct curricular applicability Vacationers looking for a learning experience at compelling sites in an unforgettable landscape

Course Bibliography Online Resources Knife River Indian Villages Dunn County Historical Society & Museum American Memory Project, Library of Congress: The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920 Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters, 1862-1912 Historic Architectural Survey of Bowman County: Sod Houses in Bowman County Homestead Shanties on the Move Haley, North Dakota Hutmacher Farmstead: Save America's Treasures NDSU Photos 2007 NDSU Photos 2008 NDSU Video 2007 NDSU Video 2008 Valentin Hutmacher Homestead File Germans from Russia Heritage Collection: Harper's Weekly 1896 Architecture The Russian Mennonite Clay Brick House and House-barn Tradition Scoria Lily Ranch: Photographs Video New Zealand: Cob and stone at Bendigo Diggings Acheron Accommodation House & Tarndale Homestead Morven Hills Station Current & technical: Cob Cottage Company Cob Builders Forum Study Guides Talking to Houses - Questions to Ask When Encountering Vernacular Architecture Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie - guide to the DVD Field School Journals - A Guide for Writers Collaborators Center for Heritage Renewal - NDSU's research center for historic preservation and heritage tourism Germans from Russia Heritage Collection - the world's resource center on the Germans from Russia on the northern plains Preservation North Dakota - statewide association for historic preservation Publicity PDF Poster for Field School PDF Press Release for Field School