Little Houses

I thought you might enjoy looking at some of the houses that Laura "lived" in. Some of them are replicas of what her house probably looked like based on her descriptions, but that is a minor detail. I've put them in chronological order of when she would have lived in them.

Wisconsin: (none of her books cover this part of her life -- she was too little to remember it)

Kansas: Little House on the Prairie

Wisconsin: Little House in the Big Woods (same house from before, they moved back into it)

Minnesota: By the Banks of Plum Creek (this house is made of sod and was located just a few steps from the creek).

Iowa: (none of her books covered this part of her life, but she did live in this hotel for a while -- her parents helped to run the place) PS: We did not visit this in our trip.

Minnesota: By the Banks of Plum Creek (Back to the same town! It's unclear whether or not her family lived in the same house again, but I suspect that they did. They only lived in the "sod" house for less than a year. Her father later built a house with siding for them, so that's probably the home they returned to. Unfortunately, no replica of this house exists.) I found this picture on the Internet -- it's not Laura's family -- but this is how I always imagined their house would look:

South Dakota: By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long, Hard Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years

First they lived in the Surveyor's house.

Then they moved out to their homestead (about 2 miles outside of town) and lived in a small "claim shanty."

Eventually, her father added on to the claim shanty and turned it into a "home" for the family.

Missouri: (She did not write about this part of her life; however, she spent about 60 years living in Missouri with her husband and daughter.)

First, they lived in the farm house that her husband built for them. It was much smaller at first (only the back-half that is one-story). As time went on, he added the front, two-story addition.

Their daughter achieved fame and wealth as a writer and designed/built the "Rock House" for her parents. They lived there for about six years, but never felt like it suited them.

Ultimately, they moved back into their farm house where they each lived until their deaths.

Here's a map to help you keep all of Laura's travels straight.