This is the house that Pa built, literally. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her “Little House on the Prairie” for her sister, Mary who went blind, painting her a detailed picture for her of what their new house and their families frontier prairie land looked like. Pa began building the house in 1880 and all the family helped to work on it and the land in the warmer months. Of the nine “Little House” books, four were set on the Ingalls Homestead. The house the family lived in until their new home was ready (referred to as the Surveyor’s House) is nearby at Silver Lake as is the store where Laura brought her books and where the family sometimes stayed in winter. The house and the land immediately surrounding it have been ‘restored’ to how they would have been in the five years Laura spent here before she was married, so it is identical to way it was described in the books, hopefully Laura‘s artistic licence was quite faithful to the truth. This isn’t the original building though which they don’t tell you too clearly in any of the tourist bumph, but some of the trees would have been planted by the family when they built the house. One person who came through with me seemed to think the house was too large inside, but the guide was addiment that it was the right size and shape. The Surveyor’s House is partly original and partly a later addition but is probably closer to the correct size - which is tiny! The house Laura lived in after she was married is now a museum. This is almost a theme park experience with lots of Ingalls children activities, like wagon rides, an 1880’s school lesson, complete with rope making (?) and a petting zoo type set up with horses, cows and ponies. All through this part of Dakota are Laura Ingalls Wilder Museums, pretty much every small town and truck stop has a claim to some part of her, but I’m not sure how authentic their collections are, the woman who thought the house was too big said they’re all knock offs. 20812 Homestead Road, De Smet, South Dakota 57231, Phone: 800-776-3594, Open 9 AM - 7 PM, Activities 9 AM - 6 PM

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Written by  Sophie Edgerton.

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