I never read any of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books when I was a kid. I wasn’t intentionally trying to avoid the lady, I was just more into The Hardy Boys. My wife and I never tuned into the “Little House on the Prairie” TV series, either. Nothing against Michael Landon or his luxuriant forest of hair, but we were probably watching “MASH” instead. We both love Kansas history, though, and the prairie where Laura’s little house stood is right here in our state. So we decided to take a day trip down to the Little House on the Prairie Museum, near Independence.
As we drove up to the Ingalls’ homestead, I imagined that I was seeing Laura’s book come to life. There’s a pretty little white farmhouse with a hand-dug well outside. Nearby is a small log building that I’m thinking is some kind of shed. A buckboard wagon stands in the yard, ready to be loaded with supplies. And there’s a sleepy-looking donkey who ambles up to the corral fence to greet us. He quickly loses interest when he sees that we have no snacks, then wanders back toward the big red barn with the colorful mosaic above the hayloft door.
“That’s not a mosaic,” explains Rhonda Stephen, the museum director. “That’s a quilt pattern called Doves in the Window. It’s the pattern Laura used to make her wedding quilt.”
People who’d read the books or watched the TV show might have recognized Laura’s quilt pattern and might not have called it a mosaic, but Rhonda isn’t judging. She’s cordially greeting guests and answering questions inside the little white 1885 farmhouse that I’d assumed was the famous Little House on the Prairie. It isn’t. It’s the gift shop.
Teeny-Tiny House
The Little House where Laura lived is actually the little log building that I’d mistaken for a shed. It’s a replica, built to match Laura’s descriptions of the family’s one-room dwelling. It’s definitely little — only a fraction of the size of the little white farmhouse. In fact, Laura might have more accurately named her book “The Teeny-Tiny House on the Prairie.” The interior doesn’t look large enough to accommodate Michael Landon’s blow dryer and collection of hair care products, let alone a family of five. It’s sparsely furnished with an antique cradle and spinning wheel, a narrow bed that sags in the middle, a crude homemade table with tree bark still on the legs, and some smaller period pieces. There are no luxury items.
“They suffered cold and heat, hard work and privation as did others of their time,” Laura wrote.
The Little House is a replica, but the other buildings here are legitimately historic, dating back to the Ingalls’ time. The 1885 post office and the 1872 one-room school were both moved here from the nearby town of Wayside when they were earmarked for demolition. Inside the Sunny Side School, it’s like you’re transported back to 1872 and class is ready to begin. The student desks have period textbooks open for study. The scarred wooden desktops are equipped with inkwells and the straight-backed wooden seats are built for concentration, not comfort. The teacher’s small oak desk sits up in front of the blackboards, beneath the framed portraits of George Washington and Abe Lincoln. Her wooden-handled bell stands ready to start the school day, and her hurricane lamp can be fired up if there’s insufficient light from the windows on cloudy days. There was no electricity, of course. The world globe sitting on top of the old upright piano reflects some of the changes our planet has seen since 1870. Ceylon is called Sri Lanka now. There’s no longer a Kingdom of Prussia. And the U.S. has more than 37 states.
The only man-made structure here that Laura would recognize is the water well. Her Pa, Charles Ingalls, dug it by hand outside the little house. It was back-breaking work. Pa shoveled down ten feet before calling in a neighbor to help. They finally hit water at 20 feet down.
“That well is how we are 99-point-99 percent sure that this is the exact spot where The Little House stood,” Rhonda tells us. “We have the 1870 census, showing that Charles Ingalls and his family were living here in Rutland Township, in a home with a hand-dug well. Rutland is very small, only 3 miles square, and there were only two other homes in this township at the time. This is the only one with a hand-dug well that’s carbon-dated back to that time period.”
Aug. 2 celebration
Charles and Caroline Ingalls and their daughters moved here from Wisconsin. They loved the vast open prairie. But like a number of other homesteaders, they were illegally squatting on Osage territory. So the Ingalls were forced to move back to Wisconsin after only a year and a half. But they were here in Kansas long enough to build a little house, dig a well and make a baby. Laura’s little sister Caroline Celestia Ingalls was born here in the little house on August 3, 1870. They called her Carrie. And here at the museum, they celebrate Carrie’s birthday every August. This year’s Carrie Days celebration will be on Saturday, Aug. 2.
“We’ll have some cake and probably some watermelon,” Rhonda tells us. “But there won’t be any ice cream at this birthday party. It’ll be August in Kansas, after all.”
There’s a small admission fee to explore the grounds of the museum. But it offers a glimpse back into Kansas life on the prairie in the late 1800s that’s well worth the price of admission and the two-hour drive. The address is 2507 County Road 3000, Independence, KS. It’s about 15 miles southeast of Independence, just off of US-75. Picnic tables are provided if you want to bring a lunch to enjoy before your slice of Carrie’s birthday cake. Bring your own water, too. Pa’s well is permanently sealed to prevent accidents.
“As you read my stories of long ago,” Laura wrote, “I hope you will remember that things truly worthwhile and that bring you happiness are the same now as they were then. It’s not the things you have that make you happy. It is the love and kindness and helping each other and just plain being good.”
There’s a lot of wisdom in that quote. Maybe I’ll actually break down and read one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s entire books someday.
Contact Joe Norris at Joe.norris47@gmail.com.
