Friday, July 15, 2016

Living Prairie


We finished off our tourist stops with a visit to the Ingalls Homestead! This ended up being my favorite thing in our sight seeing - I just loved it! And, my children did too! Every single thing was hands on and when so many historical things are "no-touch" this was the complete and glorious opposite.

The parcel of land this sits on is the original site of the Ingalls Homestead outside of DeSmet, SD. Visitors {including children!} are encouraged and able to try anything and everything they want to including driving the covered wagon, pony cart, washing clothes, making a jump rope, gardening, pumping water, and so much more.

They have adorable covered wagons you can rent to "camp" in - we tried to do that, but they were already booked for the night we needed. Such a cute idea! Just a note: these are not historical original buildings but following the historical notes in the Little House books, time period information, etc. And, in the cases where the buildings are historical in nature - they have likely been moved to this site rather than existing right here on the Ingalls property.





























































































6 comments:

Tina Leigh said...

That church is beautiful! Loved seeing the bonnets & aprons hanging up in a row. Corn cob babies! Very nice. Very interesting.

Lisa said...

This looks so cool. Forget my kids. I want to play here.

Deborah said...

I have always wanted to visit DeSmet! We visited Rocky Ridge in Missouri a few years ago, and now I definitely need to start planning for South Dakota. Thanks for the inspiration!

Mom said...

These photos capture so well all that we did and saw - it was great to visit this fun place with all of you! 😊

Michelle said...

Oh, I'm a bit envious! ;) I would love to visit all of the Ingalls homesites... My kids, as unbelievable as it sounds, are not fans of the LHOTP books. I should plan a trip for me and my mom or a friend to go, instead!

Agnes said...

Oh Monica, it looks lovely, I always said I wanted to go (it is just 5 hrs from Nebraska) but your pictures really convinced me, it looks like there were nobody, is that the case, or were you super skilled to take pictures when there was nobody?