High Plains History: Yucca

By Debra Bolton

Published February 3, 2026 at 6:00 AM CST

Perhaps no single plant was more useful to the early day inhabitants on the High Plains than the spiky yucca, or soap weed, as it was commonly called. Pioneers learned from the Native American tribes that the roots could be used as soap, especially good for hair shampoo. The process of making the soap was a long one, involving digging the sticky green roots, then pounding them on a wooden board until they were softened. The resulting pulpy mass was put into water to soak. The juice and water mixture that was drained off became soap in a community where store bought goods were rare and costly.

The top of the yucca plant, with its sword-like leaves, each with a sharp point, was soon found to be good thatch material for the roof of the family dugout. Often the children did this work, gathering and weaving the fibrous shafts until their hands and fingers were raw and required a treatment of coal oil and lard from Mother at bedtime. Yucca leaves or spikes became emergency needle and thread, and were also woven into baskets. In early summer the yucca’s ivory bells and young seed pods could be boiled and served as a vegetable, in a land where fresh produce was a precious commodity.

But beyond its household use, yucca became a paying crop for many frontier families. Women and children would gather soapweed, dry it, and trade it in town for groceries or coal. In the early 1900’s in Southwest Kansas soapweeds were baled and sold by the ton, to be shipped by rail to points east. In 1914 the Hugoton Hermes newspaper reported $8 a ton being paid for soapweed shipments to the American Manufacturing Company in St. Louis. The weeds were shipped in open slatted cars, because the sellers knew they would collect moisture en route and weigh more at payment time. The cutting of the fibrous foliage was done by hand, with sharp axes severing the plants at ground level. They were gathered and laid out to dry, then broomcorn balers were used to form 2 foot by 4 foot rectangles. It took about 8 to 10 bales to make a ton of the finished product.

At the factory the fibrous strands from the yucca leaves were used for making rope and binder twine and even straw hats. But folks back home didn’t have to travel to St. Louis to get the latest millinery fashion. In 1908 a Stevens County woman started creating broad brimmed hats from plaited yucca leaves, and began selling them in several local businesses.

And back on the farm one more use was found for this versatile plant. When dry years caused the wheat crop to be stunted and short, yucca leaves were fastened along the edge of the combine’s header platform. The first turn of the reel cut the points of the yucca fronds and frayed them, forming a soapweed ‘broom’ that swept the short wheat up on the platform and pushed it against the reel! Thus the lowly yucca, also known as soapweed, chapel bells, or the candles of heaven, truly was heaven-sent for the early day pioneers.

Thanks to the Stevens County Historical Museum for providing resource material for this story. For High Plains Public Radio, I’m Debra Bolton in Manhattan, Kansas.

High Plains History is a production of High Plains Public Radio.