Thursday, January 30, 2020

Little House on the Prairie Museum - Kansas

If you know me at all, then you might remember how much I loved reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a child. Who am I kidding, I still read them. I'm a huge fan of all things Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose. Since I live near-ish Mansfield, Missouri, I have visited that home site many times since my children were in elementary school. I have visited yearly, sometimes once, sometimes twice a year. 

I didn't mean to (yes I did), but I got my daughter hooked!  Dr. Lovely daughter is a voracious reader and one summer as a child, while we were perusing a flea market, she picked up one of the Little House books and asked me if it was a good book.


My heart jumped to my throat. Could this be true? Was she really asking me this question? At that time, I didn't realize that Laura and Almanzo Wilder's Missouri homestead was under two hours away. Once I found out it was there, we took our children and visited the homesite and its museum. My daughter loved the first trip. My son not so much.


The other day, I was going through some of my old digital pictures and found pictures from two road trips in 2011. Dr. Lovely Daughter and I had traveled to Kansas to visit the Little House on the Prairie Museum. As close as Kansas is to Missouri, I had never been to Kansas or the Little House on the Prairie Museum. This was a day trip. Here are photos from that trip.


Before we saw the Little House on the Prairie site, we saw Independence, Kansas. I can't recall what this building is but I sure love the architecture. If anyone knows what the building is or was, let me know in the comments.

Then there was this road to the Kansas homestead and museum. 



Then a sign to let us know we had arrive. I'm not positive, but I don't think any of the buildings are original buildings to Laura's family. I believe, however, that the land was actually homesteaded by Ma and Pa Ingalls.



A schoolhouse and another building. To the right of them is a cabin built in late 1970's.  


Here's the cabin a little closer. 



A sign!



Inside the little cabin.


Inside the school on the property. 


I had to add this picture of an ugly tourist in the school room! Do not make fun of her. She hates her picture taken. She told me so.




 
Here is Dr. Lovely Daughter sitting on the front porch, looking out over the land that little Laura lived on. Well actually she was looking at the camera, but before that she was looking out over the land.


Visit their website for more information here. I have a couple of pictures from our Iowa trip where we traveled to see the hotel where Ma and Pa worked. I will write that for a future post. The Iowa trip was not a day trip. I might have gone corn sane a few times.


If you're interested and haven't read them here are posts regarding the Mansfield site: Laura Ingalls Wilder Gravesite, Laura Ingalls Wilder and more Pictures and Laura Ingalls Wilder Quilt Block Patterns.






7 comments:

Pat Hatt said...

The cat won't say anything about that tourist lol

Great that you learned that it was so close and that you were able to visit and enjoy it together.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad you're able to visit so often. And that you got your daughter hooked as well.

Nicole said...

I found the building. It is an apartment building. You can rent a room if you are up for a move. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/201-W-Main-St-Independence-KS-67301/2086466378_zpid/

Mason Canyon said...

It's wonderful that you got Dr. Lovely Daughter hooked on the books too. It looks like a great place to visit and I can't blame you for visiting as often as possible. (BTW, love the photo of the tourist).

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Teresa - I remember your love of Little Women ... and your visits - good to see you and lovely daughter ... and what fun to go back for a memory trip. Looks like so much fun - the straight road looks delightful, but too many of them are sapping the driving energy. Fun to read ... and is that building the one Nicole suggests? Cheers Hilary

Roland D. Yeomans said...

To get to share your love of those books with your daughter is quite special ... and you take a great picture. :-)

Carol Kilgore said...

It's great you and your daughter share this love of all thing Laura Ingalls Wilder. And just who is that tourist? She looks a little shifty to me LOL!