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The stone house viewed from a different angle in the fall. The different colored stone in the wall just left of center is most likely where an outdoor oven was once connected to the house.
While the locals will recognize his face, the property owner wants to protect the landmark; therefore he’d rather just use his first name (Owen) in this story. Owen’s father purchased the stone house and the surrounding property in the 1940s and his uncle was the last to take residence here some 70+ years ago. German-from-Russia immigrant Gottlieb Stern was one of the early pioneers in the area and the builder of the stone-andsod house. A master stone mason and carpenter, Gottlieb first took shelter in a dugout before building a modest stone house. The impression of the dugout is still there next to remnants of the foundation of the first stone house. The larger stone house was constructed around 1885. “I know there’s a few sod houses still around, but I think this might be the last stone house in the area,” Owen said. In 1984, two graduate students from the University of South Dakota carefully examined and blueprinted the house. Owen said, “The house was in pretty rough shape at that time. It still had wood shingles, which the raccoons tore off so they could get inside. The holes in the roof ruined one room inside completely.” To try to protect the stonework and the interior, he and his son put a tin roof on the structure in 1999. “With the tin roof on, we thought we had it made. But there were trees hanging over the house. And the raccoons would climb the trees and jump from the branches onto the roof of the house and they’d get in through the chimney. So we cut the trees July 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine
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