Little House on the Prairie: Walnut Grove MN

Walnut Grove was the location of the dugout the Ingalls family stayed in for awhile while Pa built a frame house for them (On the Banks of Plum Creek). There's a visitor's center in town, and you can visit the dugout site a few miles down the road.

can you imagine putting all your possessions in a wagon this size, then living out of it for months as you travel west? we are so spoiled with our RV- so much more comfortable!

the visitor's center had a variety of old buildings and replicas of old buildings. the old jail cells are a bit of an odd addition, and Sunshine wanted to know how the prisoners stayed dry when it rained or snowed

After walking around the visitor's center and checking out all the historical displays, we drove to the dugout site. It's on private land, but the owners allow people to drive back to the site. There's a box to collect fees and a parking lot and picnic tables, and the parking lot was large enough for us to pull the RV and car around and park in a good position (it helped that we were the only ones there).

The hollow in front of the sign is the location of the old dugout. You can cross the stream on a bridge a little further upstream, and there's several markers and a couple walking trails with descriptions of the local plants and wildlife. While they've been able to pinpoint the location of the dugout, they don't know where the barn or frame house stood.

The rock we're standing on is mentioned in the book On the Banks of Plum Creek, though it has sunk over the years.

The boys enjoyed their ride :)

We had planned on visiting the Little House in the Big Woods site in Pepin, WI, but our timing was off and we weren't going to arrive until after they closed, so we skipped it. We'll visit another time- there's always more road trips in the works.