Little Vacation on the Prairie

We went on our first real family sight seeing vacation! We get out of town often enough, but the difference this time was the trip included both parents, AND all 3 kids, AND didn’t hinge around a visit to any relatives. We had a blast touring a bit of our new home state.

We went out “East River” and along the way we, of course, stopped at the infamous Wall Drug, and all it tourist trappings.

We visited the town of Mitchell, home of the World’s Only Corn Palace; a perfect place to let loose with all kinds of corny puns.  Almost the entire exterior of the building is covered in murals made from parts of the corn plant.  (Oh, and if you ever visit the World's Only Corn Palace, DO treat everyone to their own Corn Palace caramel corn.  You are not going to want to share yours with anybody.  Trust me on this one!) 

We skipped Redfield which claims to be THE Pheasant Capitol of the World, yes, the WORLD people!  (…an interesting claim considering that pheasants aren’t even native to North America.)  But we did stop to take a photo with what the town of Huron declares is the World’s Largest Pheasant sculpture.  I think the pheasants on ND’s Enchanted Highway might be bigger, but who’s to say.  Yes, while the official state motto is “Under God, the people rule”, deep in our hearts every South Dakotan knows that it’s really “Viva la kitsch”. 

And speaking of official state business, we stopped to visit our state capitol in Pierre (pronounced “peer” by the locals.)  I really liked the capitol building; no kitsch to be found there.

The main destination of the trip was to see where Laura Ingalls grew up, taught school, met, married, and homesteaded with Almanzo Wilder.

We stayed on the actual Ingall’s Homestead just outside De Smet, South Dakota!  AND get this!  We slept in a covered wagon!!!  (Well, most of us slept.  M was too tall for any of the sleeping spaces, so he didn’t sleep much.)  

cozy!

There was a whopping thunderstorm the first night.  S and M were out on a walk at the break of dawn the next day.  They found hundreds of frogs hopping around the edges of the slough (rhymes with ‘blue’).  The frogs turned out to be THE highlight of the whole trip for the kids.  They caught them, loved them (in AJ’s case, nearly loved them literally to death), built "habitats" for them, watched a snake eat one whole; pure little kid heaven.

(This might be my favorite photo that I've ever taken.)

The Ingall’s homestead was a half mile square of land.  The folks who own it now (there are no direct living descendants of Charles and Caroline Ingalls) have the place set up for very hands-on families.  There are reconstructions of the different types of homes that Laura wrote about living in, like a dugout, a claim shanty, and the house that they eventually built on the homestead and the best part was that they encouraged you to touch things, sit on things, and try them out!

We had an imaginary snack in the claim shanty.

We practiced how they washed and dried clothes.

We tried to work a treadle sewing machine.  We lay on straw tick mattress beds.  We played a pump organ like Mary’s.

We made corn cob dolls like Charlotte was.  We made our own ropes.  Then we roped a pretend calf.

We rode in a covered wagon to a little school house like the one Laura attended and taught in.  Some of us even drove the covered wagon to the little school and rang the big school bell.

We rode Shetland ponies and drove their cart.  We pumped water from a well.

We played with kittens in the hay barn several times each day.  (Again, AJ very nearly loved them to death.)

There were several of the actual Ingall’s homes and schools in which Laura taught in town that could be toured, but they were more of the look-but-don’t-touch kind of museum experience.  They also didn’t allow photography, so you’ll just have to go see it for yourselves.  The Loftus General Store is still in business…they have NOT tried to stay true to the frontier time period, but if you are looking for a tie dyed De Smet t-shirt or an I w Laura mood ring, Loftus is the place!

During July weekends the town puts on a Laura Ingall’s Wilder pageant in a little amphitheater across the dirt road from the Ingall’s Homestead.  I guess M and I had a grander vision of what the pageant would be, but when you consider that the town population barely tips 1,000, they might not have a huge pool of performers from which to choose.  The sets were excellent, but we decided, if they put a Mormon in charge of the production, there would definitely be more song and dance numbers and more little kids involved.  Our kids were mesmerized with the show.  AJ needed to know where “Pa” was at every moment.  S was so excited to go get her photo taken with the “Laura” after the show.  J liked it, but the poor kid was simply melting it the humidity.  We did have a bit of fun with all that horrid humidity and the boys’ hair.

We saw places that were named in Laura’s books, like Silver Lake and Thompson Lake.  We had such a good time!!!

This is the wonderful picture that J drew of Little House on the Prairie while we were on the trip.  It's Laura in the covered wagon, Jack under it.  Pa with his rake & shovel near the dugout's front door.  You will also notice a number of prairie dwelling animals in their homes underground as well.  I love it!