When I was in South Dakota I saw signs for the Ingalls Homestead.  I don’t think I’ve ever even watched a full episode of Little House on the Prairie, but it is rather an icon of the American pioneer days, so I decided to stop by and take a look.  It was certainly a lovely location, surrounded by rolling grassy hills.  I understand that at the time the Ingalls family settled here, there were almost no trees at all.

I’m sure that others know the history of the Ingalls family better than I do, but I understand they live in a couple of places before they settled in De Smet, South Dakota.  There was a reproduction of the wagon they travelled in at the homestead, and it was a lot smaller than I expected it to be.

This seemed a small space for the parents and four daughters to travel long distances.

When first settling in an area, or camping somewhere for an extended period, pioneers would often build either a dugout or shanty for protection from the environment.

The dugout was very dark and primitive, dug into the side of a hill and lined with turf bricks.  The one luxury was the stove, but it was cheap and fairly fast to construct.

The shanty took more materials, and was consequently more expensive to build.  It was more exposed to the elements, but also offered more space for living and storage.

There was a small barn on the property with a thatched roof.  When I was there it housed a horse, some chickens, and a mother cat with her very bitey and aggressive kittens!

Luckily for the Ingalls family, the water table was close to the surface, so the well didn’t need to be very deep.

The “Little House” itself was quite rustic.  It seems to have started out as a kitchen and two small bedrooms, and a larger work room was added later.  There are gardens nearby, and even a little porch out front.

I understand that the homesteaders had to keep something like 10 acres under production for 5 years in order to maintain their land grant.  But during the winter, when there was little to do on the farm, the men would often travel back east to work regular jobs, leaving the women and children to survive on their own on the prairie.  There were cases of women going a bit insane from spending months alone with only the sound of the wind for company.

There were interpretive guides all around the property to explain how the family and other pioneers lived.  One of them was just suggesting that I try doing laundry the old fashioned way, when I was rescued by being offered a seat in the horse cart going down to the school house.

It was a relatively short ride of about a mile, and the kids on the cart each got to try driving the (very well trained) horses.  The guide made a point of telling us that the cart was a modern design to carry tourists like ourselves, and nothing that big and luxurious would have existed when the Ingalls family was there.

The school house itself was bigger than the house I had seen, and well built.  I understand that this was similar to the one that Laura taught at, but not actually the same building.

The schoolmistress was very nice, although she made us start our lessons with stretching exercises.  We did some reading and arithmetic, and then had a short spelling bee.

After another cart ride back to the main homestead, I checked out the equipment shed.  I used this old machine to husk an ear of corn, then was shown how to turn it into a corn cob doll that I could take home.

The doctor’s carriage and the whetstone were in the shed too, along with a potato chopper and equipment for making ropes.  I love how all this old equipment works.

There were pony and pony cart rides for the kids, but unfortunately I don’t qualify any more.

One of the ponies had recently had a foal, though, so I consoled myself by playing with it for a while.

I would say that the Ingalls Homestead is much more directed toward interesting children rather than adults.  It probably would have been a lot more meaningful if I had ever read the books or watched the TV show too.  But still, it was a lovely place to spend the day, and I did learn more about the difficult life led by the pioneer settlers in this area.  And once again, I was thoroughly impressed with the beauty of the extensive grasslands.