These houses have a frame of four forked poles, planted firmly into the ground, to form a square or rectangle.  Two joists are laid over them parallel to each other.  Under one of them, in the front of the house, is the doorway.  The joists support the fiat roof of loose pine boards, laid sometimes in a double layer.  The rear joist is often a foot or so lower than the front one, which causes the roof to slant towards the back.  The boards may simply be logs split in two and with the bark taken off.  The walls are made by leaning boards, ends up, against the roof, while the door consists of a number of boards, which are removed or replaced according to convenience.  In most instances the doorway is protected from the outside against wind and weather by a lean-to.  Access to the house is gained sideways, even where a small vestibule is built, extra poles being driven in the ground to support the porch-roof boards.

While this style of architecture may be said to be typical throughout the Tarahumare country, there are many variations.  Generally attempts are made to construct a more solid wall, boards or poles being laid lengthwise, one on top of the other, and kept in place by sliding the ends between double uprights at the corners.  Or they may be placed ends up along the side of the house; or regular stone walls may be built, with or without mud for mortar.  Even in one and the same house all these kinds of walls may be observed.  A type of house seen throughout the Tarahumare country, as well as among the pagan Tarahumares in the Barranca de Cobre, is shown in the illustration.

It is also quite common to see a frame work of only two upright poles connected with a horizontal beam, against which boards are leaning from both sides, making the house look like a gable roof set on the ground.  There are, however, always one or more logs laid horizontally and overhung by the low eaves of the roof, while the front and rear are carelessly filled in with boards or logs, either horizontally or standing on ends.  In the hot country this style of house may be seen thatched with palm-leaves, or with grass.

The dwelling may also consist only of a roof resting on four uprights (jacal); or it may be a mere shed.  There are also regular log-cabins encountered with locked corners, especially among the southern Tarahumares.  Finally, when a Tarahumare becomes civilised, he builds himself a house of stone and mud, with a roof of boards, or thatch, or earth.

It is hardly possible to find within the Tarahumare country two houses exactly alike, although the main idea is always easily recognised.  The dwellings, though very airy, afford sufficient protection to people who are by no means sensitive to drafts and climatic changes.  The Tarahumares do not expect their houses to be dry during the wet season, but are content when there is some dry spot inside.  If the cold troubles them too much, they move into a cave.  Many of the people do not build houses at all, but are permanent or transient cave-dwellers.  This fact I thoroughly investigated in subsequent researches, extending over a year and a half, and covering the entire width and breadth of the Tarahumare country.