3894
09-23-2010, 07:48 AM
This is for lashbear and anyone who loves the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, inspired by a revisit to one of the sites two weeks ago.
You can see a lot of Laura's world with your own eyes. You can even visit some of the people - in the graveyard, of course. You won't be disappointed; Laura's memory was truly remarkable and, as all of her sites are rural, many are still much as she remembered.
Here are the ones I have visited. I hope you have a chance to see these for yourself.
Pepin, Wisconsin Little House in the Big Woods
The Ingalls lived in a log cabin 7 miles from Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River. The little town of Pepin still exists but the Ingalls' cabin has long disappeared. A recreated cabin stands approximately where the old one used to. The Big Woods are still in Wisconsin but you'll need to drive further north. Laura's cabin today is the Little House in the Rolling Farmlands with a Little Bit of Woods.
Burr Oak, Iowa
This is the site I revisited recently. Here's a photo I took: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ju4I_IqRtZk/TIvTsiPT1iI/AAAAAAAABCU/5aiZeWmtL6E/s320/Blog+373.JPG
It's the Masters Hotel and it's almost just as it was when the Ingalls lived and worked there. In fact, the entire town is still tiny and still very 19th century and isolated. If you are a photographer, you will have a field day. Pa managed the hotel and Laura and Mary cleaned and waited tables. Laura did not speak about her family's time in Iowa because it was so unhappy: her brother died and the family was so broke they left town in the dead of night without paying their debts. You can read about this time in Laura's life in Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story by Laura scholar William Anderson.
De Smet, South Dakota Little Town on the Prairie
So much is still here, even the big elms Pa planted, one for each girl. The house Pa built in town is still standing and furnished with many, many family items, many talked about in the books. Pa wasn't much of a carpenter so watch yourself up those steep stairs. You can also visit the Surveyors' House and the Ingalls Homestead where those trees still stand but the shanty is long gone.
Laura sites I haven't visited yet: Independence Kansas of the Little House on the Prairie, a.k.a. squatting on Indian land (that really burns me it was so piggy but the book is great), Walnut Grove, Minnesota The Banks of Plum Creek, and Laura and Almanzo's longtime home at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri.
You can see a lot of Laura's world with your own eyes. You can even visit some of the people - in the graveyard, of course. You won't be disappointed; Laura's memory was truly remarkable and, as all of her sites are rural, many are still much as she remembered.
Here are the ones I have visited. I hope you have a chance to see these for yourself.
Pepin, Wisconsin Little House in the Big Woods
The Ingalls lived in a log cabin 7 miles from Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River. The little town of Pepin still exists but the Ingalls' cabin has long disappeared. A recreated cabin stands approximately where the old one used to. The Big Woods are still in Wisconsin but you'll need to drive further north. Laura's cabin today is the Little House in the Rolling Farmlands with a Little Bit of Woods.
Burr Oak, Iowa
This is the site I revisited recently. Here's a photo I took: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ju4I_IqRtZk/TIvTsiPT1iI/AAAAAAAABCU/5aiZeWmtL6E/s320/Blog+373.JPG
It's the Masters Hotel and it's almost just as it was when the Ingalls lived and worked there. In fact, the entire town is still tiny and still very 19th century and isolated. If you are a photographer, you will have a field day. Pa managed the hotel and Laura and Mary cleaned and waited tables. Laura did not speak about her family's time in Iowa because it was so unhappy: her brother died and the family was so broke they left town in the dead of night without paying their debts. You can read about this time in Laura's life in Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story by Laura scholar William Anderson.
De Smet, South Dakota Little Town on the Prairie
So much is still here, even the big elms Pa planted, one for each girl. The house Pa built in town is still standing and furnished with many, many family items, many talked about in the books. Pa wasn't much of a carpenter so watch yourself up those steep stairs. You can also visit the Surveyors' House and the Ingalls Homestead where those trees still stand but the shanty is long gone.
Laura sites I haven't visited yet: Independence Kansas of the Little House on the Prairie, a.k.a. squatting on Indian land (that really burns me it was so piggy but the book is great), Walnut Grove, Minnesota The Banks of Plum Creek, and Laura and Almanzo's longtime home at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri.