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So, here's yesterday's sights and scenes.
We stayed in a lovely B&B called the "Prairie House Manor" in De Smet. I highly recommend it if you are ever there. It was lovely, comfortable, quiet and then hosts, Andy and Jenny Todd were lovely and attentive. I accidentally left my phone charger cord behind there and they have contacted me via phone and email to make certain I get it back.
As it happened, the B&B was two doors down from the 'House that Pa built', the home that the Ingalls lived in while in DeSmet, so I got to see the outside of that as we arrived.
I took pity on Leah on my long day of history and let her sit in a park area or the car while I indulged my love of Little House. I figured both of us would have a better time that way! LOL She listened to music and worked on art pieces we have created together while I took the tour. The DeSmet tour consisted of seeing the Surveyor's house where the Ingalls' lived when they first came to DeSmet, and also included the house that Pa built as well as the original DeSmet school and a reconstructed school that was the same size as the one where Laura began to teach at the age of 15. It was called 'the Brewster' school. I went through with three other families with children ranging age 4 to 12. They were all delightful children and it was fun to watch the interpreters 'do' my job. <G> Of course, I had to pitch in and helped several children to grind grain and sugar. I did get a few ideas for things to use at the Johston Farm as well.
The surveyor's house was interesting in that it was smaller than I had anticipated and yet, for a surveyor's house, large for the time. They had a taped off 8x8 foot area inside to show you how large they usually were. This one was something like 10x12 in the main room. This was the room 12 men slept on the floor in the books, since there was really nowhere else at that time in DeSmet to bed down.
Next we went to the first school in DeSmet. It was neat as the historic group had bought it in the 1990s and stripped it down inside and found the original blackboards from Laura's time - complete with drawings! It was fun to sit there with the children and imagine the Ingall's girls going to school.
Next came the reconstructed Brewster School, where I learned that Laura full grown was only 4 foot eleven!
I keep telling visitors at our site that people were shorter back then....
Next came the house that Pa built that was lovely and spacious and bigger on the inside than the outside (that's for my Doctor Who friend!). It really was larger than I anticipated. I kept thinking about the Ingalls going from that dugout in a hill, where their home was made of mud, to this lovely spacious Victorian home. What a journey!
Next we went to the edge of town and saw the cemtery and I visited the Ingalls graves. It was several miles outside of town on a low hill on a windblown plain.
After that we headed over to Walnut Grove, MN where I got to indulge my inner fan-girl. Of all the Ingalls' sites, this one embraces the TV show. One of the interpreters told me about half their visitors come because of the show. There are purists who want nothing to do with Mr. Landon's interpretation, and yet, Laura and Rose Wilder did the same thing. They used Laura's real life as a launching point for fiction that captured the hearts of millions. Personally, I see no difference between that and the TV show. Anyhow, in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Walnut Grove museum, there is a section devoted to the show that has memorabilia from magazines to Doc Baker's coat to...wait for it...the original mantlepiece from the Ingalls' house on the show. I was amazed by how small it was. I need to get home and watch the show again!
And yes, I leaned on it just like Pa did. <G>
After that we went to where that Ingalls' dugout home had been. I put my feet in Plum Creek and Leah and I walked the trails a bit - but, only a bit. It was 90 with high humidity, so we stayed only a short time.
Once we were finished at Walnut Grove, Leah and I headed east...and farther east...and even farther east. We stopped in Rochester, MN and are going to head to Burr Oak, Iowa later today to see what Ingalls' sites are there. It's only an hour and a half away. After that we will head to La Crescent, WI and Connor Franta's home town and then be on the way to our own.
I've enjoyed your trip. I hope to make the trip next year with my granddaughter who will be 9 by then. I'd thought about skipping Walnut Grove because, while I liked the show, I could never associate those Ingalls with the ones I'd read about in the books. I'm rethinking that now. Thanks. Janet Devers.
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