As I mentioned in my last post about De Smet, avid Laura Ingalls Wilder fans can easily spend more than a single day in the area.
I suggest picking up a copy of the booklet “Explore De Smet,” a walking and driving guide to many of the sites mentioned in, or relevant to, the books set in South Dakota.
It’s fun to walk the streets and discover the locations of homes and businesses Laura mentioned in her books. In addition to the guide, interpretive signs help visitors get their historical bearings.
The signs are nicely done, with period advertisements or photos, a location summary, and a quote from the pertinent book.
You can visit the Loftus Store. In The Long Winter, Cap Garland and Almanzo Wilder risked their lives to bring wheat back to the town’s starving residents, only to have storekeeper Loftus try to cheat his customers by asking an exorbitant price.
After exploring the town, jump in your car to see sites in the area. The Big Slough, described in By The Shores of Silver Lake, is located just south of town. It’s much smaller than it was in Laura’s day, but worth a stop.
I also wanted to see Silver Lake, but had a hard time finding it. Finally one of the Historic Homes guides gave me good directions. A lane into a small industrial area led to a vantage point where I could see the lake.
One of my favorite places in all of Laura Land is the Memorial Site, one mile southeast of De Smet.
An interpretive kiosk marks the site.
In 1880 Charles Ingalls (Pa) filed a homestead claim for this land. The Memorial is in one corner of that original property.
The tiny cottonwood trees Charles planted for his family are still there, and now enormous. It is very special to walk among them.
For hands-on fun (especially with kids) you can also visit “The Ingalls Homestead: Laura’s Living Prairie” right up the hill.
Laura married Almanzo Wilder in 1885. The site of their homestead is on private land, but a sign marks the spot.
Many Laura fans also visit the De Smet Cemetery, as Chloe Ellefson does in Death on the Prairie:
Chloe drove next to the De Smet Cemetery, a peaceful place on a hilltop between the town, a remnant slough, and farmland. It didn’t take long to find the graves of Ma and Pa, Mary, Carrie, and Grace. Then – “Oh.” She stopped in front of a low stone that said simply, Baby son of A.J. Wilder.
“Why?” she demanded softly. Why just note the father? Why was Laura’s name left off the stone? The omission was exasperating, perplexing, and terribly sad. Even sadder was the fact that Laura and Almanzo had evidently not named their son.
But…perhaps Laura named him in her heart.
If you visit, you’ll find stones for Laura’s parents and sisters nearby.
When my sister and I toured De Smet for the first time we also wanted to see where Cap Garland was buried. Again, a guide at the Historic Homes gave us great directions (to a different cemetery), and described the stone so we could find it easily.
The guide also suggested we visit the area where Almanzo took Laura courting. We were running out of daylight—but that only made it easier to imagine the couple getting to know each other during buggy rides.
(Photo by Barbara Ernst)
If you’d like to see more I highly recommend Discover Laura, the official blog of Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes. It features a virtual tour of De Smet, family artifacts, and site news. (Here’s a post about Cap Garland and his family.)
For more information about Death on the Prairie, including links to other tour stops, photographs, maps, and much more, please visit my website.
Next stop: Little House On The Prairie museum in Independence, Kansas!
Sites and Stories 