Question: How far North in the USA do adobe buildings exist?

[Mason]

More of a geopgraphy question, or something that those of you from the States can answer.

What I need to know is: How far North can I set Upsheet Creek and still legitimately have adobe buildings?

I ask as I want to mix adobe and wooden buildings in the same town, but still have the board look fairly 'fertile'.

I realise that there would be fertile valleys further south where they may have been a mix of buildings but, having thought about it, I think I would like to know the answer anyway.

Any ideas. chaps?
 

[NickNascati]

Living in the Northeast, I am sort of guessing, but I'd say no further North than the deep Southwest,  Southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, maybe in the Baja Peninsula in California.

[OSHIROmodels]

Maybe have a look at where the extents of the Spanish settlements got to 

cheers

James

[HerbyF]

I live in the northwest USA. While traveling in the western US I have seen adobe buildings as far north as northern California, Denver Colorado & northern Utah & Nevada. All of these places had Spanish missions before US exspansion to the west.

[former user]

as far as I can tell, the raw materials exclude each other when it comes to local availability
while it is conceivable that construction wood is imported into arid regions that are required for dried clay constructions to be durable enough, the wet climate that enables large enough trees to grow would imply enough rain to wash away pure adobe buildings.
This is where the european timber frame comes into play, that can be filled with adobe too, not only wattle and daub, but also requires a rain ablating roof and a dry foundation,
The correct question would be then how far south wooden construction material would have been transported and used alongside the cheaper adobe....

[Mason]

Thanks, chaps!
 

Plenty to consider there.

former user: Clever. I just did not think of it that way.

[former user]

the US colleagues gave the answer: it is the US states where the spanish, mexican and pre-columbian abobe building tradition is preserved and viable, and where the US would bring in cheap construction wood from the north.
I can imagine that the Mexican border is a cultural limit to NA wood construction?

[FifteensAway]

I live in the region of Sacramento, California, USA, and there is an adobe relic (a museum piece in the open air) a good hundred miles north of here (estimate) but before the climb up into the Siskiyou mountains.  However, the more northerly adobes are the exception rather than the rule.  Perhaps you can do as I do and have a board that has multiple towns - one can be a southern adobe and the other a more northerly and wood constructed town.  And if you really want to go for broke you can build a town of sod buildings upon on the barren northern plains.

There was plenty of wood available in much of the south west - the upper reaches are covered in evergreen forests, though not all of it commercial grade lumber. 

[Mason]

Hmmm.....

My main reason is that I really wanted an adobe cantina instead of a 'normal' saloon.

May be this could be built on the site of an old building with the upper floors made of wood......thinking, thinking....

Actually, I like the sound of that!
Sod realism, it sounds interesting.
 

[Elbows]

I just ended up starting an Adobe town to use with various bits and pieces from my normal town.  Another couple buildings and I'll be set.  I've tried to mix them and it just never looks right. 

Maybe a couple of run-down ruins of adobe buildings on the outskirt...a small town replaced by a large boomtown once the railroad arrived?

[Too Bo Coo]

Adobe buildings are pretty much located exclusively in the Southwest, in terms of how far 'North'.  I beelive mostly due, like most homes, to the materials at hand.  The earth in places like Arizona is practically cement.  I think from the clay content.  When the native Americans were active in the area that's now Phoenix Arizona, there were some 300 miles of canals for farming.

[Cory]

Adobe was used all the way into Canada, in fact there were gold rush mining camps in Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia that were all called Adobe Town.

However the wetter climate and snow will remove all traces of adobe quick - some adobe towns were noted to have left no traces less than 20 years after being built.

That being said the use of adobe in the central and northern Rockies was primarily for temporary structures where time was a significant factor. Many were not true adobe but an adobe facade over a log building of lodgepole or larch, often unnotched with wide gaps between the logs. The buildings tended to be small, 200 to 400 sq ft, reflecting the urgent nature of their construction.

That being said, an adobe cantina is possible. Two things to keep in mind is that living in adobe means you have essentially "gone native" or simply aren't WASP. It's fine for Mexicans, Indians, and what not but for white folks it means they have gone to the bottom of the barrel. The other thing is that in areas of snow a flat roof isn't going to cut it.

[Mason]

Thanks for the reply, Cory.
Much appreciated.

Snow....didn't think of that.
 

One thing: WASP?
What is that?

[Cory]

WASP - a modern acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. In the 19th century they simply would have said white or civilized.

[Too Bo Coo]

'WASP' you tend to find in the New England area of the country, t

Adobe was used all the way into Canada, in fact there were gold rush mining camps in Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia that were all called Adobe Town.

However the wetter climate and snow will remove all traces of adobe quick - some adobe towns were noted to have left no traces less than 20 years after being built.

That being said the use of adobe in the central and northern Rockies was primarily for temporary structures where time was a significant factor. Many were not true adobe but an adobe facade over a log building of lodgepole or larch, often unnotched with wide gaps between the logs. The buildings tended to be small, 200 to 400 sq ft, reflecting the urgent nature of their construction.

That being said, an adobe cantina is possible. Two things to keep in mind is that living in adobe means you have essentially "gone native" or simply aren't WASP. It's fine for Mexicans, Indians, and what not but for white folks it means they have gone to the bottom of the barrel. The other thing is that in areas of snow a flat roof isn't going to cut it.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here.  You really can't build 'adobe' style in places you mention becasue you cant build the bricks.  I'm talking about the making of clay/reed/straw blocks baked in the sun and those used to make the buildings.  Technically 'adobe' architecture includes Africa and other places outside North America, but if he means the type of flat roof, sun baked brick type building, I think my answer still stands.  But that's not to say in a wider definition, a North African building could indeed be 'adobe'.

Cheers!