On The Banks of Plum Creek

Ever since I was very young, I have loved Little House on the Prairie. My grandparents got me the books for my birthday. They gave me three every year for three years and I looked forward to getting my new books quite a bit.

And of course I loved the TV show. I always imagined that it had to be so cool to live during the pioneer days and wear dresses and live off the land and be in wide open spaces where there aren't so many people.

Well, we live only an hour away from Walnut Grove. Yes, the Walnut Grove. The little town that the TV show was set in (not that it was filmed here or anything, but it was the setting) and the little town that the Ingalls family actually lived near during the On the Banks of Plum Creek years.

So I said early this summer that we are going to go to Walnut Grove this year. And so we did. We first went to the actual location of the dugout that Ingalls family lived when they first moved.

Wilbert on the bank of Plum Creek with the site of the dugout on the opposite bank.

Here I am (sporting the new glasses) on the bank by the dugout site.

We also went the Wilder Museum that they have in town. It held a lot of things that related to the Ingalls family and especially their time in Walnut Grove. It also had a replica dugout so you could see what sort of conditions the Ingalls family lived in.

Three weekends in July the town puts on a pageant production that dramatizes some of the events that took place during Laura and her family's time in Walnut Grove. We were able to see the last performance of the season and we were very impressed. They had some great sets and the actors, even the little kids all had their lines memorized and it was very well done over all.

You can get more information about Walnut Grove and everything we did here.

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