The books

The first edition of Little House on the Prairie

The Little House on the Prairie books are well-beloved in America. And the world. Tales of family life and struggles on the frontier. Hazards of life and community that rarely touch the real lives of we children of later years, but were very real to the pioneers.

They were hardy folk, not because they wanted it that way, but because they had to be. They tamed the land, they built the towns, they made a nation.

In Australia it was much the same. Not so heavy on the snowstorms, but our pioneers had to cope with drought and bushfires. And locust swarms, eating all and breaking hearts. Two very different lands, but here the essential realities of family survival in a harsh but ultimately rewarding wilderness were the same. The land tested the occupants, and the hardy overcame the challenges, found love and began their own families in a slightly less forbidding environment. Ultimately, it is not the land that is the story, it is the people.

There were nine Little House books in the series:

1. Little House in the Big Woods: Laura’s early childhood in Wisconsin from about 1870.
2. Farmer Boy: The early life of Laura’s later husband, Almanzo Wilder, in New York State.
3. Little House on the Prairie: Laura’s childhood home in Kansas.
4. On the Banks of Plum Creek: The Ingalls family in Minnesota, about 1875.
5. By the Shores of Silver Lake: De Smet, South Dakota in 1879
6. The Long Winter: The severe winter of 1880/81 in South Dakota
7. Little Town on the Prairie: Laura’s adolescence in De Smet, 1881/82
8. These Happy Golden Years: Laura’s teens and courting with Almanzo.
9. The First Four Years: The first years of married life.

These books were written and published in Mansfield, Missouri between 1932 and 1943, and during this period Laura became famous as a beloved author.

A later generation rediscovered the stories when they were made into a television series later, which brought a new boost of life to the books. Safe to say that Laura Ingalls Wilder is a name beloved by people around the world. In America, she occupies a pedestal with Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery and others.

The place

Skyring in Missouri

Driving a Dodge between Kansas City and Oklahoma City, a small part of the way on Route 66, we booklovers were drawn to the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I and a precocious lad of three in the third seat row were the only males in the vehicle, with three generations of women my passengers. I merely operated the steering and foot paddles – all of the direction came from beside and behind me. Not to mention the occasionally snarky voice of the GPS if I made a wrong turn.

Look, Wanda the GPS voice, it’s not as easy as you might think, driving an unfamiliar vehicle on the wrong side of the road. Every intersection, I had to think, “Left is loose, Right is tight.” And every now and then I’d get it wrong, usually when I was feeling confident and satisfied. Luckily my passengers were awake, and the shrieks of dismay and outrage would remind me that I wasn’t in Oz any more.

There was a little fiddly bit of country road before we got there. Themed motels popped up on hillsides. We rounded a bend, and there it was, historic house and farm on one side of the road, car park – and a thoughtful and very welcome amenities block – on the other.

We got out, stretched our legs, used the facilities – it had been a long drive from Kansas City – and posed for photographs beside the sign. I had lugged my taxidriver uniform to the far side of the road, and here I was driving a van load of lovely ladies, opening doors and tucking them into their seatbelts, doing my taxidriver thing, and I wasn’t going to let the occasion pass unrecorded.

This is Rocky Ridge Farm where Laura wrote her books, though it isn’t the subject of any of them. It’s now a shrine to her, her family, and her books. And to America.

If I edit this in visual, I’ll lose the map, but the link remains:

View Larger Map

The house

Rocky Ridge Farm

Having the carpark on the other side of the road leaves the farm looking much as it must have during the years that Laura and Almanzo worked the land, at least up until about 1960, by which time they had both departed. We walked up the drive, past old trees planted a century gone, Halloween decorations here and there. Left was the store, ahead the museum and reception, right the old farmhouse, looking as genuine an American residence as ever I’ve seen.

A little house in its own right, it has grown steadily larger. Originally little more than a kitchen and bedroom, it expanded with the increasing prosperity of the Wilder family, growing rooms and windows and levels.

The entry fee was modest, well worth admission to the museum, a treasure trove of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books. Here was Pa’s fiddle, from the pages of the earliest book and the earliest years of Laura’s infancy. Still brought out and played every year.

A covered wagon, chairs, desks, craft, photographs, the family bible, a shelf of translated editions of the books. Honestly, I could have staid a week and not admired every item. The real Laura Ingalls Wilder fans must live in rapture here.

The house is accessible from the museum. Small groups under the direction of a guide tour regularly. We entered the oldest part of the house, shoulder to shoulder in the tiny rooms, looking at the original furnishings, listening to the guide talk of the history and people of the cosy home.

The rooms grew bigger with the decades, reflecting the success of the farm and the books. We looked at the places where Laura worked, setting her memories down on paper. Here, in the heart of America, she poured hers out, telling of dangers, romance, nostalgia and childhood dreams.

We finished our tour in a large room with a pleasant outlook. The culmination of a life of effort, Laura would have been at home here, answering her fan mail, writing further books, enjoying retirement.

We left the house for the visitor centre, sitting in on an audio visual narrative of Laura’s life, and then browsing through the shop, with sets of books, biographies, photographs, postcards, craft items and clothing.

The other house

Once the royalties began flowing in, Laura’s daughter Rose bought a house from the Sears catalogue and erected it for her parents over the other side of the hill. It’s within walking distance, but in a car it takes a few minutes to circle around, park and walk up the hill.

Here another guide led us through the house, which must have seemed ultra modern when it was built. Many of the features, such as built-in wardrobes, we take for granted now, but were the amazement of the country when new. Laura and Almanzo lived here for a while, but eventually returned to their homely house with its happy memories.

The key

Rocky Ridge scarecrows

Cornmeal Mush, Bean Porridge (along with the famous rhyme) and Corn Dodgers. Potato Cakes, Creamed Carrots, Fried Parsnips and Succotash, Ma’s Green Tomato Pickles.

And a hundred more, each with a story or snippet of historical information and link to the books. This is a cookbook with depth and flavour, stick-to-your-ribs food to survive a long winter or spend a day on the farm, stick-to-your-brain facts of days long gone.

These are the foods that Laura ate and wrote about through her life. For modern America, long used to bland, processed food, this book is a refreshing taste, a flavour and savour of the real roots of the land.

–Skyring

Resources

• Wikipedia article on Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Amazon Laura Ingalls Wilder store
• Laura Ingalls Wilder historic home
• Little House recipes

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