“Are you sitting down?” my husband asked over the phone a few months ago.
“Is something wrong?” I answered, panicking slightly.
Daniel and I usually communicate via text or google chat during the day, so I was curious to see what kind of news merited a phone call.
“No, it’s good news. Just…you should probably sit down. I found out that the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota is going to be on the way during our road trip. You can stay on the homestead and learn about the Little House family and then spend the night in a covered wagon.”
It’s a good thing I was sitting down.
My husband knows me well and has heard all my confessions about my childhood obsession with Laura Ingalls Wilder, my girlhood woe that I wasn’t born in pioneer days, and the era in which I wore black lace-up Laura-esque boots between the ages of 8-10. As my often-embarrassed older brother will attest, they were not the fashion. But I loved them with a burning passion, hot as the prairie sun.
I don’t know what exactly made me fall in love with the Little House books. There was adventure aplenty for the Ingalls, but I think it was a combination of the strong sense of home wherever their family might be and the usefulness and value Laura had, even as a child, in her family. All of her work mattered for the family’s survival and that was incredibly attractive as I read the stories as a little girl. It felt empowering.
As our family just closed a chapter of our lives in Florida to pursue a new adventure in Texas, I’ve drawn inspiration from the Ingalls family leaving their home in the big woods of Wisconsin to start a new life on the prairie.
A couple of weeks into our road trip, we made it to De Smet and visited the homestead. It was all I dreamed it would be. This was the homestead that the Ingalls claimed in On the Shores of Silver Lake where they finally settled.
While I’d read Little House in the Big Woods to my six- and three-year-old a year ago, it didn’t seem to really spark their imagination the way I hoped it would. But visiting the homestead did the trick. They loved making rope and corn cob dolls. Driving a wagon and visiting a school house. Exploring the running around the homestead, riding horses, and learning about the Ingalls.
My girls had beautiful little bonnets made lovingly by my friend Nell to wear around the homestead and they made my heart go pitter patter.
We slept in a covered wagon and out there under the stars, it was like all my prairie girl dreams came true.
The kids hated to leave and have been hooked on the Little House audiobooks ever since. Daniel surprised me with a copy of Wilder’s recently published autobiography, Pioneer Girl, complete with oodles of fascinating annotations. It’s heavenly.
As we begin a new adventure with this move, I’m glad to have this sweet memory and childhood dream fulfilled.
Any other pioneer girl wannabes in the house? Let’s chat about Laura in the comments.
I completely forgot to ask you about this. What an amazing thing to see and do. I have family in Wisconsin and Minnesota, so I feel like we could make a road trip out of this!
You should!
I spent the better part of my childhood obsessed with Little house on the prairie and there was no greater dream then living in the “olden days”. We had bonnets that were well loved and worn for MANY halloween costumes.
I’m so jealous! I spent ages 7-10 pretending to be Mary Ingalls (my best friend was Laura). Our moms made us prairie dresses and bonnets and for some reason let us wear them in public with our lace-up boots! I also built a covered wagon out of cardboard and an old quilt in our basement. Can’t wait to hear how you like Pioneer Woman!
My parents bought a 1900s farmhouse just down the road (2mi) from the Kansas site. I was so excited to visit. My mom read me the books when I was about 5 and I had a red calico pioneer dress I would wear. Sadly, the Kansas site is not very impressive. It was supposed to be open, but no one was there and all of the buildings were locked. After reading Pioneer Girl, I realized Laura had been a very small child (like 3) when she lived there, and the family hadn’t stayed very long. It makes since that the De Smet site would be much more impressive, because they were there longer. What a fun adventure with your kiddos!
I grew up 3 hours from here and have never been!!! Your trip has totally made me realize how CRAZY that is and I plan on taking my girls there when we go back home to visit and they are old enough to enjoy the books. Anyway, YOU SLEPT IN A COVERED WAGON!!
LOVE Laura, and Little House. After getting Pioneer Girl from Christmas (so many hints bordering on demand haha) I have read everything related I coukd get mu hands on. The week before you mentioned the site in DeSmet, I read a book about a woman who visited all the historic sites and basicallu obsessed for a year or so over Little House. It was called The Wilder Life. Anywho, I grew up at a church that has an “Old Fashioned Day” every year so I too dressed up and pretended to be a pioneer girl!
Oh, I’m so envious! I’ve loved everything Little House since I was a little girl, and spent the better part of my childhood playing “little house” and dressing the part! I just recently took a two-part free online class about Laura, taught by the editor of Pioneer Girl. It was fascinating, and I’m enjoying my copy of Pioneer Girl, too! I would love to visit some of her home sites someday!
I just listened to the Laura Ingalls Wilder podcast on Stuff You Missed in History & had my bubble burst..a bit. I’m like you, I had a old fashioned dress that I wore constantly! My cousins & I would bury my grandmother’s bread pans under trees to “cook.” So much fun! I just kinda pushed some of what I learned in the podcast out of my mind ?
Last year we had time to stop at many of the northern sites – DeSmit, SD, Plum Creek, MN and Pepin, WI. My little boy was four at the time and he started listening to the books when he was three as his grandmother read them to him over Skype. Oh, he was in heaven. I’d really like to get to see Almanzo’s place in NY. And Laura’s home in MO. Sometime!
DeSmit: http://missyvanee.blogspot.com/2014/05/heading-east-to-de-smet-sd.html
Plum Creek: http://missyvanee.blogspot.com/2014/05/plum-creek-mn.html
Pepin: http://missyvanee.blogspot.com/2014/05/pepin-wi.html
If any of you get a chance to go during the school year, like we did, just call ahead and they’ll let you join a school group. You don’t have to wait for the summer!
Wow, this sounds amazing! I totally had a “Little House” themed birthday party when I was eight. My mom bought some mint green calico fabric and sewed me a matching skirt, bonnet, & drawstring purse. We played country-ish games and watched an episode of “Little House” together. I was completely obsessed with those books, and even though I’m in my twenties, I still love to re-read them!!!!!!!!!! I saw Pioneer Girl at the library the other day, but I already had a massive stack of books, so I’m waiting until my next trip to pick it up. I’m super excited 🙂
I loved the Little House series so much growing up that I called my parents Ma and Pa for a long time. I also called our family dog Jack.
It looks like your family had a wonderful visit to the homestead!
oh, I am so jealous of this! 🙂 I too LOVED Laura, devoured the books, dressed in full skirts, and pretended I was traveling across the prairie (which was really just the back acres of my parents’ farm). I got Pioneer Girl for my birthday this summer and have loved it with all of its facts and cross references and maps and photos. I love that you and your family got to experience this piece of her life during your own cross country trip!
My favorite!!! I always read little house in the big woods to my fourth and fifth graders when I was teaching and one of my proudest moments was seeing them play little house on the playground!
The grade 3/4 teachers at my elementary school read through the first two books with their classes, took us to a local museum for a “pioneer school” day and then held a lunch where we all learned to make different Little House dishes. It was awesome and something I’ve never forgotten.
Oh this looks so awesome! I would love to do this! I too loved all things Little House on the Prairie and watched the shows all the time! My sister and I used to pretend my Dad’s shed was the Ingall’s cabin and we would dress up in long dresses. I still have vivid memories of so many of the shows and I loved the books too! What a great trip! I’ll have to add this to my never-ending bucket list! 🙂
Ohhhh…Pioneer Girl is wonderful! Super jealous of your trip to De Smet!
I love your comment about how empowering Laura’s family life was. I loved the books as a girl and my appreciation has only deepened as I’ve grown. In fact, my husband (whose mother is an ardent Wilder fan, meaning he was raised on it too) and I have talked before about how to emulate virtues from the Ingalls family in our own home, when things are so different in our modern world. We love their sense of family unity, the children’s complete trust in their parents (Laura’s instant obedience to her mother when there was a bear in the cow pen!), the ability to work hard but find joy in music, stories and laughter together when the work is done, the resourcefulness and value for all parts of a thing, the shining wonder of each Christmas and the gratefulness for what they had, even if it was small and simple… Obviously there’s a huge danger of idealizing what was actually I’m sure a very difficult and mundane life in many ways, but still, I love, love those books even now for all the things that seem worth seeking in our own lives of we can!
These are some of my favourites! Even as an adult I find myself returning to their simple wisdom again and again. I read them the first time as a child traveling across the Canadian prairies in our own ‘covered wagon’ (truck & camper) on a 6 week journey. I soaked in “The Long Winter” during my first Albertan winter. And I found such hope in them when moving around the world with two small babies, knowing that other families had survived moving & poverty & starting over time and time again.
Oh wow! Anne, Laura & Betsy, Tacy & Tib were my best literary friends as a child. I also felt like I was born in the wrong century. Can you post more pictures? It looks like an amazing experience.
I still live in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom, and I am still obsessed with the prairie just like when I was a child! My husband gave me Pioneer Girl for my 40th birthday and I hope that in the future we can enjoy a similar experience in South Dakota with our girls. Pioneer Girl broke my heart a little bit due to its complete authenticity, though – are you the same? In particular when Ma’s sister sends her upstairs to discipline the naughty children – I had never seen Ma in that role at all! I still don’t believe she wanted to, just that she did what her sister told her.
Yup, those books were also a big part of my childhood. I’ve been to three of the sites now, and the best one by far for me was actually Almanzo Wilder’s farm in Malone, NY. The house is still there, and it’s just really cool.
Sadly, my romantic notions about actually living that way have vanished. I wouldn’t say I live a pioneer lifestyle–very far from it–but we heat with wood, grow and proccess food, hunt and eat the meat, and man, I would not want to rely on all of this for my very survival.
Also, I’ve become very disenchanted with Pa over the years as I’ve grown older and re-read the books with my sons. I also read the annotated auto-biography, and Pa just seems like . .. well, kind of a bit of an irresponsible drifter who dragged his family with him everywhere. Laura seemed to be cool with it, but Ma? I now, as a grown woman with children of my own, feel very, very sorry for Ma.
Anyway. Sorry to be a downer. I’ve brooded on this more than I should have, obviously. If you’re interested in pioneer women, however, you should try to find a copy of “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey.” Just what it sounds like, and awesome.
I have always been a bit obsessed, too. I had two large stuffed My Little Ponies and this little ping baby pram-stroller thing. I took off the legs of the pram and reattached the wheel axles, so it was shorter and looked like a buggy or “covered wagon” and then hitched my ponies up to it with shoelaces so that I could play Laura with my Barbies. I have every biography I could get my hands on and the cookbook. I even use the cookbook from time to time. I always refused to watch the show, though, because it wasn’t like real Laura. And Michael Landon has a baby face instead of a beard, so and I felt Pa’s whiskers were an integral part of the story. I love the new annotated “Pioneer Girl”–I loaned it to my sister and I am on tenterhooks about when I will get it back. You and I would have probably been good friends as a kid, because I have always been Anne-obsessed, too. Actually, googling Anne stuff was how I found you and your blog!
I too was obsessed with LIW and LHOP growing up. My best beau’s family lives about an hour from Rocky Ridge Farm, and when we visited them, we planned to go see it. As the day drew closer, it seemed at several points that the trip would not come off. He became so upset that I had to reassure him that yes, I would like to go, but if we didn’t make it, I would live. The day arrived and after one last near-cancellation, which made him uncharacteristically upset, we got on the road. The fact that we were on our way and even when we arrived didn’t seem to calm him, but I was enjoying seeing the wagon and Pa’s violin and the little china shepherdess (Oh my word, right!?!?) We were the last tour of the day – it seemed the tours were extended beyond normal hours that day – and as we entered the home, we were the only participants. The white haired lady began to read from an index card and then stopped abruptly, smiled and waved “bye-bye”, and walked out and shut the door. I didn’t have time to be bewildered, because I turned around to find my best beau on one knee with a beautiful ring in one hand! We’ll celebrate four years of marriage in November!
I would love to go to De Smet and sleep in a covered wagon! Growing up I was obsessed with all things Laura Ingalls and Little House on the prairie. Now my little sister is obsessed and talks about Laura any chance she has. My grandma even made me prairie dresses with pinafores and matching bonnets and I wore them all the time. My mom took me to the pageant in Walnut Grove once and I dressed up like Laura. On our trip to SD this summer we drove past De Smet and my sister and I both would’ve loved to visit. Someday we’ll go! Your trip sounds like it was amazing!!
I REALLY want to visit her home in Mansfield–it’s probably the best preserved and closest to us (there’s Pepin, but when I read “The Wilder Life” it sounded like there wasn’t much…there). I’ve always loved Laura, ever since I read LHIBW in first grade.
My six year old daughter loves Laura and also things Little House. We have read the whole series several times through in the last couple of years. We visited the homestead last year and I only wish that we couldn’t stay longer! It was delightful.
Awesome! I spent my childhood wishing I had been born in the past. Now I wouldn’t turn away from modern medicine, but otherwise…turn back the clock!
Laura really captures my imagination with her stories, and that’s saying something because I’m not crazy about the prairie. I think I could totally do Big Woods, though! That’s my favorite Ingalls phase!
From the moment my dear godmother gifted me with a beautiful copy of “The Little House on the Prairie,” I was obsessed with all things Little House. My thirst was not satisfied with just the Laura years, but I spent several years collection all the Little House books that spanned the several generations of Little House women. I loved reading about Laura’s daughter, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, etc.! My childhood best friends shared my love of the Little House series and we spent our days pretending that we lived on the prairie. We ran around our family farms barefoot carrying cheese and bread in homemade lunch pails, wearing bonnets, and playing with dolls crafted from strips of fabric. The Little House is very dear to my heart and I can’t wait to introduce my future daughters to those lovely stories!
After reading about your trip to the Homestead my passion for this piece of history has been reignited. This will have to be a trip that I plan soon!
Oh my gosh YES. I’m putting this on my to-do list immediately. I love that covered wagon! Those books were a favorite of mine, along with the Box Car Children.
My mom read then to me when I was about 6 as well. But I had no retention. I had to re- read then when I was a pre-teen, and then, the first few were a bit young for me.