Day 15.5—for the “Little House” fans only!!

I will freely admit that the stop in De Smet was as much for me as for the girls—I grew up reading the Little House books (and I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve read them!) and watching the TV show. I thought I wanted to live on the prairie when I was a little girl—until I realized how hard their lives really were and that they had no air conditioning!! My decreased desire to live in the 1800’s still has not diminished my love of Laura’s stories and I’ve enjoyed sharing them with my girls. So it was especially exciting to actually see the the stories come to life a little bit. As I mentioned in the previous post, our first stop was at the Ingalls homestead. Pa’s original 160 acre ‘quarter section’ of land has been preserved as a living museum. While none of the original buildings remain, they have made some very authentic replicas based on old records. One of the first things that I noticed was how ‘close’ the town of De Smet was to the ‘claim’—it’s only a mile away, so you can actually see the town from the homestead. The second thing that surprised me was how ‘small’ 160 acres looked (it’s fenced in so you can see the boundaries)—I think this is probably because the relative lack of trees in the area allows you to see it all.

They have the homestead set up with areas that you can explore at your leisure and areas where they have guides and activities. Because we arrived late in the afternoon, we started with the guided & activity areas to make sure we had time to do them. Our first stop was “Ma’s Little House”. This is the house/shanty that was built on the claim and they used old land records to research the square footage so they know the replica is to scale. This is actually the house after it has been added onto twice (bedrooms & a parlor for the organ). The original ‘shanty’ was about an 8 ft. by 8 ft. room that Pa built the first summer (just the part to the left of the barrels.)

The girls got the chance to try their hand at doing laundry on a washboard. One thing about all the wind here, your laundry would dry quickly on a clothes line! Inside the house, they have ‘Mary’s organ’ purchased by Pa & Laura for $100:

The “whatnot” shelf:

The shelves lined with cutout paper:

Our next stop was a barn (not sure that this is authentic in any way) –but this was where they had a pony cart and a wagon ride to the schoolhouse. They also had a darling little baby pony! We caught a wagon ride to school and both girls had a chance to drive the team (Skip & Barnum! Their other teams are Pet & Patty and Prince & Lady.)

Once we got to the school, we were met by the teacher (who seemed just about old enough to be authentic!) who dressed all the girls in bonnets & aprons and the one boy in a straw hat. Then then she told us about prairie schools. She used all of the children in her presentation. Emma & another girl demonstrated a school lunch (with a lard sandwich--- ewwww!!): And Abbie got to read out loud with another group of girls:

Once school was out, we road the wagon back to the barn. Next door, they had an area where they demonstrated some of the pioneer activities from the stories—like grinding wheat in a coffee maker ( which made me SO thankful for my Nutrimill!!):

Making ‘hay twists’:

Making corncob dolls:

And making rope (not sure this was in a book but it was cool!):

They have 10 acres of the land planted (all that the Ingalls family was required to farm) and have some old farm equipment on display that they actually still use. There is also a replica of a ‘sod house’ like the Ingalls lived in on Plum Creek and a sod barn that Pa built on the claim—inside we found these two friends:

A final thing of interest is that the stand of cottonwood trees Pa planted as a ‘windbreak’ around the house (and boy, do I see the need for it!) are still there:

On Friday morning, we drove into the town of De Smet and saw a few more sites. You can actually tour the homes but we did not take the time to do this. Here are a few photos of what we did see…

The Surveyor’s House:

The original De Smet school (in process of restoration):

A replica of the Brewster School (where Laura first taught):

The Loftus store (where they bought the blue suspenders for Pa):

The Ingalls house in town (not the storefront from the Long Winter—that is across the street from the Loftus Store):

This was such a fun way to end our trip. I’ll end this post with a quote I found in the garden by one of the houses… very, very true!