In a slight departure from the writing tips posts, I want to share some photos of the homesteads where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. I just returned from touring sites with my youngest daughter and her two girls (ages 6 and 8).

My granddaughters read the Laura books this past year, and my own three girls were raised on them. They visited Independence KS and Walnut Grove before I caught up with them. These are photos from De Smet SD and Mansfield MO. 

The pictures below are mostly from De Smet, where we could take more photos of the hands-on experiences. (Rules prohibited photos inside the actual Ingalls homes and surveyor’s house.) There is also a photo “On the Shores of Silver Lake” in De Smet.

The last two photos are from Mansfield MO, at Laura and Almanzo’s home where they lived many years. (They built that huge farmhouse by hand themselves, one room at a time as they could afford it, with materials found on the farm.) Everything in the house was exactly the way Laura left it when she died in 1957. For us devoted Laura fans, it was incredible getting to see Pa’s fiddle and the two items saved when Laura and Almanzo’s first home burned down, among dozens of other personal effects.

Laura, the Writer

As a writer, I loved seeing Laura’s writing desk, left exactly as it was the day she died. (I loved that a letter from her publisher lay on her desk. It was called Harper & Brothers then. I’ve had a number of books published by HarperCollins, as it is now called.) I know it’s rather silly, but I also loved seeing her Blue Willow dishes in her kitchen. (I have collected them since I got a child’s Blue Willow tea set when I was young.) A kindred soul!

For all you Laura fans out there, here’s my mini tribute to a tough, sensitive, gritty, wonderful pioneer girl and writer. ENJOY!

At De Smet, South Dakota 

Mansfield, MO