Here’s Why Living in an Idaho Cave is Way Better Than A House

We see or hear about it all the time: “The rent prices in Idaho are rising.” As someone who just endured the house hunt for my family and me not that long ago, I can tell you that I got more gray hairs from trying to find a reasonably priced home in Idaho.

Thanks to an Idaho legend, however, there is an alternative for Idahoans to consider when thinking about home, and trust me when I say it’s cost-effective. According to OnlyInYourState.com, Richard Zimmerman, or “Dugout Dick” as he’s known to locals, is responsible for the construction of a community of “homes” in Salmon, Idaho that were made up of rock, wood, and other materials.

They also go on to share that Dugout Dick constructed around a dozen of these homes that he would rent out. After he passed in 2010 at the age of 94, the Bureau of Land Management came and removed most of the cave homes leaving only a memorial to Dugout Dick.

With the way things are going, is this really the worst way to live? I dove into the depths of YouTube to try and find what life was like living in those houses now that they’re destroyed and thankfully, I was able to find an amazing short film on the caves produced by the channel ‘YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip.’

Now, I don’t know about you but once I saw how these cave dwellers made things work, it actually sounded pretty nice. Is this the way of the future? Is this where we’re all heading eventually?