Our Laura Ingalls tour in De Smet, SD

This was originally a topic asking for advice or our trip to De Smet. The topic now has descriptions and photos of our trip.

Click here to go to the first description and photos of our trip.

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Hi everybody. I was registered on the forum a while back but didn't post much and my account was deleted. I'm back now and have a question that I'm hoping all of the experts here can help me with.

I'm planning to take my mom on a trip to De Smet in a two weeks for a tour of some of the Laura Ingalls/Little House attractions. I have found the following website that has a few different options:

www . desmetsd . com/attractions.html

The first society on that page has a day trip that sounds interesting: www . discoverlaura . org/visit.html . I was thinking of doing this, but wanted to get some advice from folks who may have already visited De Smet.

Has anybody on the forum gone or know somebody who has gone? If so, do you have any advice/recommendations? It will be on a Saturday and we'll probably be there from around 9 AM until 5 PM or 6 PM.

Thanks,
Dan

*Bump*

I called this morning and got more information. The tour that I'm interested in starts at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society gift shop. The tour takes us through two of the Ingalls' original homes (including the Surveyor's house) as well as original school that Laura and Carrie attended, and a replica of the Brewster school where Laura taught. At the end of the tour we get to see some new artifacts that they discovered that were owned by the Ingalls.

There is also the Loftus store, a "hands-on" schoolhouse where we can try our hand at some of the things that the Ingalls would have done (sewing on a treadle sewing machine, learning Braille, etc). There are also supposedly some Laura exhibits at the library. The lady with whom I spoke on the phone said that at the end of the tour, they'll give us a map of many of these attractions as well as where the Ingalls' graves are (the tour itself is only of the two homes and two schoolhouses).

There is also a "Depot Muesum" that "pays tribute to the other members of the De Smet area". Has anybody been to that? I'm wondering if it has any Little House items or not.

So, that's what I know for now. The tour sounds like it only takes an hour to an hour and a half depending on how much time people want to spend at each of the four locations (that sounds short to me, but what do I know?).

So, that's all the information that I have for now. The next piece of the puzzle is finding a place to stay. It's a four and a half hour trip when the roads are passable, but with all of the flooding between here and there we will need to take some detours so we're planning to spend Friday night at a hotel in Sioux Falls prior and go the rest of the way Saturday morning.

I'm still hoping that somebody here has been there and can offer some advice and recommendations. If not, that's fine, we'll find our way around, but I'd like to know which are the most interesting places to make sure that we see.

Thanks,
Dan

Okay, found this too. :) www . ingallshomestead . com

I just called and it has a lot of cool things like a covered wagon ride to a prairie school, pioneering activities (twisting straw [or was it hay?]), making a corn cob doll, grinding wheat, etc. It also has a dugout house, reproductions of the Ma's Little House and the Hay-Roof Barn and quite a few other things. It's self-paced other than the covered-wagon ride to the prairie school which goes about every half hour. This sounds pretty cool, too. :)

VFHusker wrote:

Okay, found this too. :) www . ingallshomestead . com

I just called and it has a lot of cool things like a covered wagon ride to a prairie school, pioneering activities (twisting straw [or was it hay?]), making a corn cob doll, grinding wheat, etc. It also has a dugout house, reproductions of the Ma's Little House and the Hay-Roof Barn and quite a few other things. It's self-paced other than the covered-wagon ride to the prairie school which goes about every half hour. This sounds pretty cool, too. :)

Here you have another site that maybe could be of your interest:

http://www.desmetpageant.org/

They have nice photos, indeed and pretty good info!

Vanesa.

Thanks, Vanesa! I saw that the pagent was last month so we missed it. That would have been really cool.

This sounds like so much fun! I would love to do this someday! Sorry I can't help you out, but I hope you and your mom have a great time! Welcome back to the forum Dan....hope you can post more often this time around. Let us know how your trip goes!

I have never been in De smet but i have been in Walnut Grove and it was awesome if you ever want to go there i might be able to answer some questions for you I hope you have fun

Jacob, I've loved your pics of Walnut Grove...and I hope I could visit there (and De Smet, and Big Wods) spmetime in my life.

Vanesa.

hope,you have a good time

As I started typing this, it turned out that it was getting quite long, so I’ll post it in segments. Here is the first installment from our trip to De Smet.

For my mom’s birthday the Lord laid on my heart to take my parents on a little vacation to De Smet to tour the Little House sights. I invited them and planned a trip to spend a Saturday touring the area. We left Friday and stayed the evening in Sioux Falls, continuing to De Smet the next morning so that we would arrive by nine (when registration began for the first tour of the day).

When we arrived at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society’s tour headquarters right at nine Saturday morning, the first thing that I noticed was that the street signs in De Smet all had covered wagons on them and said “Little Town on the Prairie”. I think that they’re cute. :-)



We walked to the building where the tour starts and saw some little covered wagons for taking children for walks. They looked like a lot of fun, but I decided against going for a ride in one. :razz:





When we went inside, we spoke with a lady at the front desk/register and signed up for the tour. The first tour was going to leave at 9:45 so we had forty-five minutes to peruse the gift shop. After looking around for a while, I discovered several books that looked interesting and called a fellow Little House fan to inquire if they were worth purchasing.

As we continued to look at the books, we were told that we could go to the back where they had several displays of items that belonged to the Ingalls. There was a little “museum” in the back and we got to see all sorts of interesting items. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed. That was really disappointing because there was a lot to look at even though the room wasn’t all that large.

Among the things that they had in the room was a display of all of the different printings of the Little House books. They also had items that belonged to the Ingalls’ such as a small family Bible, a couple of inflated pig bladders (they were toys for the children), one of Laura’s dresses, crocheted items, and a host of other things.

We only had about five minutes to look before the tour started so we had to look quickly, but would come back later in the day to take another gander (and purchase the books that we had been looking at). One of the ladies gathered us together and lead us to the first stop on the tour.

What an interesting trip! I loved the way you depicts it...Too bad it was not allowed to take pics inside the room in which Ingalls items were displayed. I wish I could go there only once in my life to see it all.

I'm interested in Laura's dress? It was a dress that she would wear as a girl or a "grown up " dress ?

I'm burning to see the next bunch of pics and your depiction of your visit. You makes it quite vividly!

Hope your parents are enjoying the trip too!

Vanesa.

Wow, what a wonderful thing to do for/with you parents! I'm sure it's a trip they will always cherish.


Those street signs are TOO cute!! And I love the house! So, what books did you end up buying?


Thanks for posting....like Vanesa, I'm looking forward to your next installment!

The tour began with my parents and I and another group of three women and three little girls. We walked to the surveyor’s house which was just a few dozen feet from the tour headquarters. Our tour guide reminded me a lot of Nanny Louisa from Road to Avonlea. She slightly resembled her appearance, but mostly it was the way that she spoke and the way that she gestured. She was very knowledgeable and was very good at telling stories. She was an excellent guide.



The surveyor’s house is not on the original location where Laura and her family stayed. It was moved to its current location to become the first house in De Smet when the city was first being formed. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the surveyor’s house. :-(

As we walked into the main room, I began to recall how Laura had described the house. Our guide reflected on the way that Laura described it, and told us also that at one point they had up to twenty people sleeping on the floor in the main room. It certainly didn’t seem large enough for that!

The room had a cast iron stove (it only had four burners whereas the one that they had in the books had six), a piano (or organ, I don’t recall which), a replica of Charles’ fiddle hanging on the wall, a chair, and a table with a coffee grinder and several jars of canned goods. There were several photos of the family hanging on the walls as well.

As our guide explained the history of the house, she pulled out a map and told us of the travels of the Ingalls family and what their lives were like in each of the places where they lived. She also asked questions to see how much we each knew about the books. At one point, she mentioned that Ma didn’t like one of the places where they lived (I think it was Burr Oak, IA) because of how hard it was working at the hotel and possibly not even being paid for it beyond just having a place to live. Caroline also didn’t like the saloon next door to the hotel. Our guide then asked the three girls if they knew what a saloon was, and one of them replied “like a store?”. Her mother quickly corrected her with “You’re thinking of a salon”, and the guide explained what a saloon was. :razz:

As one entered the main room from outside, the wall on the right had three doorways and the wall to the left had one. The first door on the right was the bedroom where Charles, Laura, and Carrie slept. It had a small closet and was one of the few rooms in the house that still had the original floor.

The second door was a stairway upstairs to where Mary and Laura slept. We were not allowed to go up there, but they had set up a large mirror at the top of the stairs so that one could just look up the stairs and see the entire room. It was arranged as it would have been when the Ingalls lived there, with two beds, a small dresser (which may have been built by Charles, though there is no proof of it), a doll, and a few other things (maybe a small chest?).

Through the third door was the kitchen. Our guide recounted how Laura thought that it was enormous, though I think that I’d feel pretty cramped cooking in there!

Our guide told us of the long winter and how Almanzo had gone to buy grain. When the people in the town finally had the grain, the only way that they had to grind it into flour was using a coffee grinder. There was a small coffee grinder on the table in the main room that we could try out. I forget the exact numbers, but basically they had to grind all day just to make enough bread for the family for one day.

In the corner of the main room was a whatnot shelf with some photos and other artifacts, and there was a small shelf on the wall above the whatnot shelf that held a china shepherdess just like that which Caroline had.

Through the door to the left (which was between the stove and the whatnot shelf) was another room that had a bunch of farming implements that they would have had in those days. There was also a red tape outline on the floor showing the size of their original shanty…which was roughly the size of man people’s bathrooms!

There was a door in that room that lead to an entryway of sorts that lead to the back door. One could see the original siding of the house in that entryway. I believe that there was a small area on the outside of the house that still had some of the original siding. I think that a lot of the house had been resided.

As we left the surveyor’s house, we turned to our right and just a few feet away was a replica of the Brewster school where Laura taught.

Wow, I LOVED reading your account of your trip!!! Makes me almost feels like I was there! Almost. Thank you!!

VFHusker wrote:

Through the third door was the kitchen. Our guide recounted how Laura thought that it was enormous, though I think that I’d feel pretty cramped cooking in there!

I just went into a friend's home that was built in 1923....they just bought it and it is so amazing and solidly built, with all the original woodwork and everything. But the kitchen is SO tiny and awkward!! Every other room was a nice size---the dining room is huge! I keep wondering, why was it back in those days that the kitchens were SO small?!?! Didn't they realize they would need SPACE in there?!?!


And oh my goodness, can you imagine grinding grain all day long to make enough flour for just one loaf of bread?! It's hearing stuff like that that makes me remember to count my blessings!!

The Brewster school surprised me. From the outside, it looked very small (well, it is very small). Once inside, though, there was a surprising amount of room. We were allowed to take photos inside the Brewster school.



The schoolhouse had three children’s desks, a table for the teacher, a stove, and a blackboard. On the teacher’s desk/table was a pale of water with a ladle and a lunch pail that had formerly been filled with lard (such pails would never have been wasted once the lard was gone as they were too valuable).



On top of the stove there was a piece of braided straw (which I really didn’t think belonged in the schoolhouse but it was interesting nonetheless) and a potato. Our guide told us that the children would take hot potatoes and put them in their pockets when they walked to school. The hot potatoes would keep them warm. Once at school, they would put the potatoes on the stove to reheat them and they would then eat them for lunch.



The Brewster school had a lot of informational signs hanging on the walls, but I didn’t have time to read them. I believe that I took photos of most of them but haven’t gone through all of the photos to read the signs.



When we left the Brewster school replica, we walked to the first school of De Smet.

The first schoolhouse of De Smet is currently being restored so it’s kind of messy inside. When This is the schoolhouse attended by Laura and also where Eliza Jane Wilder taught (though not at the same time).



After being a schoolhouse it was turned into a house and walls were put up. The walls have been taken down so that it’s just one large classroom again, but the floor, ceiling, and walls still have a lot of restoration needed.



The room in the schoolhouse is quite large and could hold many students. In the center of the room was a large stove. I kind of wonder how it felt having a desk next to the stove compared to having a desk in the corner of the room. :razz:



The most interesting part (to me) was at the front of the room. When the schoolhouse was a house, the walls were wallpapered over several times. During the restoration they began peeling off the layers of wallpaper and discovered that the wall at the front of the room was the blackboard. Not only did the blackboard paint still exist under all of the layers of wallpaper, there was still chalk writing on it! There is some writing and part of a face visible where they have already removed part of the wallpaper all the way down to the blackboard.



The blackboard section is now behind clear plastic to protect it while they determine how to proceed with the wallpaper removal. The problem is that it is very tough to remove the wallpaper without damaging the blackboard or the writing that’s still on the blackboard. I believe that our guide said that it would cost $30,000? (that number may be wrong but I think that’s what she said) to have somebody come in to properly remove the wallpaper without damaging the blackboard or removing the writing from it.

I looked through my photos and unfortunately the glare from the windows is so bad that one can only barely see the face drawn on the blackboard in this photo (I apologize for the poor quality of the photo):



As we were leaving, there was a glass case in the corner near the door. It contained several artifacts related to the schoolhouse. Our tour guide forgot to point it out until I started looking at it. By that point we were already leaving so I didn’t have more than a few seconds to glance at it so I don’t recall what all was in it.

After leaving the schoolhouse, we proceeded to the Ingalls’ (Charles, Caroline, and Mary) final home on Third street a few blocks away.

Amy wrote:

So, what books did you end up buying?

I bought several of the pamphlet books by William Anderson including:

Prairie Girl
Laura's Rose
A Wilder in the West
The Horn Book's Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Iowa Story
The Story of the Wilders - I ended up with two copies of this because I forgot that they had it at the Memorial Society gift shop and ended up buying one at the Loftus Store. Later when we went back to the gift shop I was kicking myself because the copies at the gift shop were signed and also cheaper so I picked one up there too so that I'd have the signed copy, so now I have two. :razz:

To expand my collection of Little House books, I bought Down to the Bonny Glen (The Martha Years) and The Road from Roxbury (The Charlotte Years). I again screwed up here as I later discovered that I already had a copy of the Road from Roxbury. I wouldn't have been so upset but that was an expensive one. I carry a list of the Little House books that I own with me in case I see them at a used book store or thrift store and need to know if I already have it. This book was written at the bottom of the list that I needed it and I didn't realize that I had written it in the series that I already had it. Oh well, live and learn.

They had another book that I wanted at the Memorial Society gift shop but I forgot to pick it up. We didn't have time to purchase anything in the morning because the tour was starting so we came back later and I was so focused on the pamphlet books that I forgot about the other book that I wanted. I don't recall the name, but it was a softcover book about the same size as the Little House softcover books and I was told by a friend that it was similar to I Remember Laura (which I already have) but was different.

I also picked up two 8.5x11 softcover books that have holes in the cover with photos. One is The Ingalls Family of De Smet and the other is The Best of the LORE.

I also bought a photocopy of a page of notes that Laura had written with her comments on a number of Bible verses, and a page that has the timeline of Laura's life. I also picked up eight postcards, the Christmas double feature DVD (I had one once but returned it and regretted it ever since), a twig from one of the cottonwood trees that Charles planted (yeah, it's kind of silly but it was only $.50 and I think it's cool), some horehound and sassafras candy sticks, and a covered wagon salt and pepper shaker.

My mom bought a bunch of postcards (loose and in a big pack), one of the same 8.5x11 books that I bought (I don't recall which one), a CD of the only known recording of Laura, a couple of papers, and a few other things that I don't recall right now.

What an interesting post! It's like travelling with you to De Smet. I can almsot FEEL I'm there. The pics are also amazing.


I was impresed by the humble sight of Brewster school. I could imagine how wild the whole place must have been when Laura thaught there. It looks so poor and little...Watching at your pics ( much better than the ones I've seen at books about Laura) I portrays Laura in my mind, with her 15 yers old, teaching there for the fist time and having to go back to an unfriendly house by night. You can feel th wilderness of the place. Thanks for those pics!

I didn't know that the first school of De Smet was being restored. What an interesting work tyhey are doing inside the building! This building seems more cozy than the Brewster-Bouchie one.

The story of the potatoes is amazing too...My! How those times were different from ours!

Vanesa.

YES! Thanks so much for telling us all about your trip. I would have been so disappointed to not be able to go upstairs. To see where Laura and Mary slept all those cold nights would have been wonderful!
I have all the books you purchased...they are all so good!

Extremely interesting!!

Thanks for sharing that! Really great stuff!

Wow. Thanks for the tour. I felt like, I was almost there. I will have go there someday.

Hey! And you began purchasing almost the same set of booklets I'v got when I started studying the Ingallses and the Wilders!

Vanesa.

Thanks for sharing the information with us.

VFHusker wrote:

My mom bought a bunch of postcards (loose and in a big pack), one of the same 8.5x11 books that I bought (I don't recall which one), a CD of the only known recording of Laura, a couple of papers, and a few other things that I don't recall right now.

Isn't it ridiculous that there are so few recordings of Laura?? It's not like recording devices were unheard of, and she was famous by the time they became popular! Makes no sense to me.

Thank you for the 'tour'! It sounds like you had quite the adventure!