The Little House Books and Laura Ingalls Wilder have seemed like old family friends as long as I can remember. We read the books to our children when they were little and our daughters loved reading them for themselves. The tradition has been passed down and our granddaughters also enjoy the books and learning about life on the prairie so many years ago.
We decided to include a couple of days at the Ingalls Homestead, DeSmet, South Dakota in our journey across the country. Our two days were very enjoyable and it was thrilling to see places that we just had a mental image of previously.
The Homestead museum has a campground with 4 rv sites, 4 covered wagons, 1 bunkhouse and acres of open area for tenters. We were lucky to get a reservation for one of the electric/water rv sites. We are right in the middle of the homestead with gorgeous views of the grassland, slough, cottonwood trees (that Pa Ingalls actually planted) and a number of buildings that were either moved from other locations or constructed according to specifications in the proving papers that Charles Ingalls filed for the homestead.
The town of DeSmet is about a mile away and Becky did a guided tour of some of the buildings there including the Surveyors house (the first house in DeSmet that the Ingalls lived in) and the house that Charles built in town on 3rd Street when he, Ma and Mary moved into town.
At the Homestead there are activities all day, which includes things like making a jump rope, riding to school in a very large covered wagon, seeing baby calves, making corncob dolls, and so much more. The price of all this is $15.00 per person and covers the entire time you stay on site or one day if you are a day visitor. The displays are wonderfully organized, educational and fun at the same time.
The sunsets were lovely both nights at the Homestead.
Our last afternoon we decided to drive over to the DeSmet Cemetery where Ma, Pa, Mary, Carrie, Grace and Laura's infant son are buried. Laura and Almonzo are buried in Mansfield, Missouri where they lived most of their married life.
This is so neat that y’all were able to do this one. What a cool experience! Your Dalik grandsons were pretty infatuated with those books when they were younger as well. ☺️
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