Hey Travelers,
I’m off to speak in Cabool, MO. From my research there’s not much happening in or around Cabool… but then I got an email from a homeschooler who informed me that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home is about 30 miles west of Cabool. In fact, there was a big 150th birthday celebration recently honoring that beloved author who gave us Little House on the Prairie.
While I wasn’t around to enjoy the celebration, I have been to the Laura Ingalls Wilder home and museum in Mansfield, MO. It’s the last home of Laura and Almanzo Wilder and where she penned her now-famous books. To a family that has read the books and watched every single episode of the Little House on the Prairie TV series, it’s a great trip.
Where else can you see Pa’s fiddle, Mary’s Braille slate, Ma’s china figurine, and the largest collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder memorabilia in the world. To a Little House on the Prairie fan, it’s like Walnut Grove heaven.
Speaking of Walnut Grove, if you travel 650 miles north, and you can visit the town where the Ingalls family settled and built their modest soddy on “the banks of Plum Creek.” You can actually stand in the indentation in the bank where the home stood and wade in the creek where Laura and Mary played… and played a mean trick on Nellie Oleson.
Walnut Grove is a real town now with a small Laura Ingalls Museum and Visitor’s Center with some artifacts from the TV series including Doc Baker’s black suit.
On our visit I notice that my RV trailer lights were shredded and dangling on the ground. So while my young family explored the creek I lay underneath the beast and scabbed it back into working order. I couldn’t help but feel like Pa caring for his youngins on the trail west.
On a shelf in our “travel room” sits a small bottle containing some of that water from Plum Creek that serves as a reminder of our trip to Laura’s home.
We haven’t been to any of these other places but here are some other Ingalls’ spots to visit:
– A replica of the house in the big woods – Pepin, WI
– A replica of the Ingalls cabin just 12 miles southwest of Independence, MO
– The Master’s Hotel that Charles Ingalls managed in Burr Oak, IA
– The Ingalls’ homestead in De Smet, SD
– Spring Valley Methodist Church Laura Ingalls Museum – Spring Valley, MN
So read the books, watch the series, and load up the wagon and experience the actual places experienced by Laura, Mary, and the rest of the Ingalls family… with YOUR family.
Swing wide and keep your eye on your tail,
Todd
My family is traveling to Rapid City, SD, on Sunday. We are making a detour on the way to Walnut Grove and also DeSmet! We are big Little House on the Prairie fans so we are very excited to see some of the places she lived! The timing of your piece was perfect!!