Laura's Big Rock

I started reading On the Banks of Plum Creek, and Laura talks about a big, high, flat rock that they climbed up onto to watch the cattle go by. I was watching a few YouTube videos about people visiting the site of the Plum Creek dugout, near Walnut Grove. And they talk about the "big rock", and show a low, flat rock sitting half in the creek. Looks like a nice rock to step out on and fish.

But the rock in the book was a high rock that was in the prairie by the stable, not on the side of the creek. And it at least sounds bigger than the rock shown in the videos. So I'm wondering what is going on here. Is the creek rock a different rock that is talked about later in the book (I'm still in the early chapters).

Did a farmer break up the rock because it was in his way on his land? Did he transport it down to the creek somehow and throw it in? Has the creek shifted its path since then? Did Laura exaggerate or make up the field rock? And why do they call the creek rock the "big rock" that Laura talks about in the Plum Creek book? Does anyone know what happened to the rock? Especially for those posters who may have visited the site.

Rhonda wrote:

Perhaps one could write to the Gordon family and get more information about the layout of the land and maybe about the big rock...

I'm not sure how to get in touch with the Gordon family, but I was looking at your links. And I was wondering if the Walnut Grove museum might have some information about it, they list an email address, maybe I could write them.

Looking at that rock in the picture, that could be the rock that Laura was talking about, but someone would have had to move it down to the creek. The way she describes it, it seemed much bigger, but she was just a child, and when you're a child everything seems huge.

So I did email the museum in Walnut Grove, and they were nice enough to send me a reply. They said that IS the rock in the creek, and what happened is that the creek has shifted its path since Laura's time and the rock has sunk into the mud. Pretty cool! I can just picture Laura and Mary standing on the rock.