Vermont 2021 {Getting There: Laura Ingalls Wilder Sites}

(Day 2, cont) Friday, 24 September 2021: De Smet, SD to Lamberton, MN

We pulled into De Smet juuust before sunset, so all the Laura Ingalls Wilder buildings and tours were long closed up for the day, but I was still thrilled to be able to walk around the grounds, reading the signs on each of the buildings and homes that were connected to the life of Laura. I hadn't even thought of stopping at the Laura sites until I got a text from my aunt Nikie asking about our trip. When I told her we were going the northern route through South Dakota and Minnesota she mentioned a friend that loved the stops about Laura but she hadn't ever been to any of them herself. Lightbulb! Why didn't I think of that? So I started looking at our route and it worked out that we would be going right by De Smet and Walnut Grove. We had to stop, even if we got there after it closed! So we did. :)

De Smet is where On the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years and The First Four Years took place.

We pressed on into Minnesota afterward and stayed in a cute little motel in Lamberton that night. 

They've moved a handful of buildings and homes and an old
wagon all to this corner of a block and made a sort of park around them.
The do offer tours, but they're only at certain times of the day due to 
covid and the whole place closes at 4, so getting there at 7 or so was way too late
for any of that. But each building is lit and has an informational sign (I love those!)
so I was still happy we stopped.

Laura and Carrie's school.

The whole square (the schools and wagon are kind of between
and behind these two white homes).

Across the street near a big parking field is the bathrooms.
They made me chuckle.

Also across the street was a playground, which
the kids were most eager to check out and I can't
blame them.

The park also had a little free library! We love to peruse the choices in these at all the parks we come across. Cal spotted this book about Hiawatha and kept it out to show me when I got back from the bathroom. It is actually one I had put on hold when I wanted to learn about Hiawatha after our bike ride, but it never came in before we left. But now we own it! (Still have yet to read it, but I’m excited we found something relevant to what we’ve been reading recently in a random little free library in the middle of nowhere South Dakota!)

I convinced the kids to walk around the homes with me
but it was getting really dark and photos were not good.

(Day 3) Saturday, 25 September 2021: Lamberton, MN to Walnut Grove (Plum Creek), MN

The next morning we backtracked about 15 minutes to Walnut Grove, another spot the Ingalls family lived and Laura wrote about. We drove past the square where the museum and gift shop and other buildings were since they weren't open yet and went to the Ingalls Dugout Site just a bit further out of town. This spot is on private land, but is very well kept up and is where On the Banks of Plum Creek took place (we went backwards in time since she moved east to west and we were coming west to east). We loved walking along the shores of the creek and seeing some of the notable spots like Big Rock, the Spring, and the actual hole in the ground where the Ingalls family dugout actually was! Amazing! It was a beautiful morning and really pretty cool to be standing right there where her story happened!

This is looking back from Big Rock toward the fields and
parking area and big sky of Minnesota.

The creek was perfect!

Across the creek where that big sign is is the dugout spot.

Crossing the creek

We took one of these mown path hiking loops through the prairie
grasses and sunshine.

Way back there is the farm house and barn of the current
owners (it was built long after Laura's family
lived here).

Back up the hill to the dugout site for one more
sign to read that I missed before.

One more glimpse across the creek.

 Thanks, Nikie for reminding me about Laura! We'll have to come back and do the full tour someday!