October 28, 2020 - Little House on the Prairie
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So far this trip we had primarily covered two states: Kentucky and Missouri. We left Branson and headed due west into Kansas. We were heading for Wichita but along the way decided to stop at the actual Little House on the Prairie site, 13 miles southwest of Independence, Kansas.
There is a little visitors center in that white farmhouse on the left. The farmhouse is a typical turn-of-the-century house out on the prairie: two rooms on the first floor and two small bedrooms on the second floor. Heat was by a wood stove in each room. The house was inhabited continuously until 1960.
This farm was bought back in 1923 by Bert Horton, grandfather of the present owners. He had no idea that it was an historic site where Laura and her family once lived.
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From the brochure: The Ingalls family -- Charles, Caroline, and young children Mary, Laura and Carrier -- made rural Montgomery County, Kansas, their home from 1869 to 1871 -- a time when pioneer families endured the many challenges, hardships and tribulations that came with the untamed territory. Those events left an indelible imprint on the mind of young Laura, who used her childhood experiences in Kansas as the genesis for her "Little House" novels, which eventually became a television series of the same name.
This map shows the migration of the Ingalls family with the Little House book names by the book's location. The Ingalls moved back to Pepin, Wisconsin in 1871.
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| A replica of the one-room cabin similar in size and shape to the cabin used by the Ingalls family in the book Little House on the Prarie. |
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| Seeing a house likes this makes one appreciate what we have today. |
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| The inside of the one-room Sunny Side School that was used from 1872 to 1947. It has been restored to the pioneer era period. |
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| "There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising. And on the whole enormous prairie there was no sign that any other human being had ever been there." - Laura Ingalls Wilder |
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A covered wagon like the one the Ingalls may have used for their travels across the plains.
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| Charles Ingalls dug this well by hand in 1869. It is 20 feet deep and lined with stones. The well provided researchers the evidence to determine the location of the original Ingalls cabin. |
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