Straw bale houses have never been common. However, there are still several of significant age that are being lived in. The oldest straw bale house is over 100 years old and is located in the sandhills region of Nebraska. This is where the idea to use baled hay and straw to build homes was first conceived.
A local Wyoming news outlet has a very sweet story about a (now) 99 year old man who learned about straw bale building in his younger years, and decided to build a home for his family with a shoestring budget. To this day, he still lives in his handmade creation.
The Story of a 70 Year Old Straw Bale House
“He wanted a home for his family. As a young man with a wife, two children and one on the way, Chuck Bruner had some big decisions to make. He may have had little money, but he was smart and not afraid to take a chance.
Working nine-hour days six days a week back in 1948, Bruner’s mind wondered while employed at a nearby garage. He complained about not being able to afford a home, but one day in Glendo gave him a glimpse of hope.
Roy Amick enlightened Bruner of his successful venture building a grocery store out of straw bales and suggested Bruner do just that on his own plot of land.”
Be sure to check out the full story here on the Douglas Budget.
The Original Inspiration for Straw Bale Homes
You may be wondering how the idea to use baled hay and straw first took off. The Sustainable Home has a little bit of history on the subject:
“The invention of straw and hay bale homes in the sandhills of Nebraska was almost inevitable because of a combination of factors. The first was the invention of the horse powered hay press (hay baler) around the 1870’s-1880’s, which for the first time created the raw material for bale homes. Secondly, the traditional Nebraska sod house didn’t work all that well in the sandhills. The turf on the uplands tended to fall apart easily and the soil in the lowlands was too valuable for growing crops to use it as a building material, if any alternative could be found. Nebraska resourcefulness and technological progress met in the sandhills and the bale house was born.”
There are some other fascinating tidbits in that story — be sure to check it out as well.
Image credit: Gillette News Record, Wikipedia