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On Thursday I decided to take a little field trip on my day off. So I was heading down U.S. Highway 59 to U.S. Highway 14, listening to Fleetwood Mac's album "The Dance" as I made my way to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove. I've been to the museum and gift shop several times throughout the years, but I've never really taken the time to look closely at the museum's displays. There's so much to see and read about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life and family and about the lives of people she came in contact with.
The museum has several buildings: the Depot, the chapel, Grandma's House, a dugout, the Little Red Schoolhouse, the Early Settler's Home and Heritage Lane. Inside the Depot are two main exhibit rooms. In the first room are a few items that once belonged to Laura, including a red and white quilt. There's also information about the Ingalls and Wilder families as well as other Walnut Grove families like the Bedals, Kennedys and Owens. I was drawn to the timelines on the walls of both Laura's and Almanzo's families. One little tidbit stuck out to me. Area newspapers sometimes had little briefs about the Ingalls family, like when Mary suffered from the illness that left her blind. One such news clipping was featured in both the Redwood Gazette and the Currie Pioneer. It made reference to Lake Benton, and this was the first time I've ever seen/heard Lake Benton being mentioned when related to Laura Ingalls Wilder. In the Currie newspaper back in September 1879, it says "C.P. Ingalls (Laura's father), who is taking charge of a gang of men near Lake Benton, made a visit to town last night and reports work progressing rapidly and thinks in a short time trains will run to Lake Benton." He was at work at the Chicago and Dakota Railroad at the time. One could spend the afternoon in the Depot building thumbing through the binders of different family histories, but there was still more exhibits to explore.
The second exhibit room in the Depot is dedicated to memorabilia from the "Little House on the Prairie" television series, including the mantle. Episodes of the television show are on a loop in the room.
On to Grandma's House. The first room I entered was a children's area, with toys, games, and hands-on activities. There were a few games on the computer, which included making a quilt or "Dress the Ingalls," in which you put a dress or a suit on a person, along with a hat/bonnet and shoes. According to the museum's brochure, Grandma's House was built in the 1890s, and it has pioneer home exhibits as well. There's also a new Garth Williams (illustrator of the "Little House" books) exhibit, a doll collection and a serviceperson's exhibit in the building as well.
Laura's daughter, Rose, was an accomplished writer/journalist herself. I noted that one of her books, in which a copy was in a glass case, was titled "Cindy." That was kind of amusing. It was one of her romance books that isn't as well known. Even though I would like to read it, a copy is probably hard to find.
Next up was the schoolhouse, which, according to the brochure, was constructed by the Walnut Grove High School FHA in 1986. Then I went to the Early Settler's Home, which was moved in from property owned by Eleck Nelson, a neighbor of the Ingalls family when they lived in Walnut Grove, according to the brochure.
So as I'm looking at the brochure to see if I hit all the places, like the dugout and Grandma's House, I see that there's an outhouse on the grounds. An outhouse? Did I miss it? It was kind of off the beaten path, and the brochure stresses that it's for show and not for use. The brochure also says "step inside for a great photo opportunity!" so I obliged.
The last building was Heritage Lane, which has a covered wagon display, tools, a telephone switchboard, the original Walnut Grove newspaper and a "Main Street" exhibit. As a journalist, it was interesting to learn about Walnut Grove's first newspaper. It was started by Joseph N. Byington in his home on Aug. 13, 1891. It was called "The Rural Center." He moved the newspaper office to Main Street in July 1896. He sold the newspaper in 1900 to the firm of H. Hulburt and A.C. Gleason. Then it was named the Walnut Grove Tribune.
Laura's sister, Carrie, was also involved in newspapers. It was something I knew about, but I didn't know the extent of her experience. In the newspaper display on one of the placards, it says that Carrie learned the printer's trade in the De Smet Leader. She ran presses, set type, wrote news and edited the newspaper. Then she went to the Black Hills and worked at several newspapers, like the Keystone Recorder and the Hill City Star. She also worked for the Kingsbury County Independent. It sure would be interesting to learn more about her work and life.
I went back into the Depot building to see if I missed anything and found myself paging through the binder on Dr. Tann, who treated the Ingalls family when they were stricken with "fever and ague," which in actuality was malaria. He was the family's neighbor and delivered Carrie Ingalls on Aug. 3, 1870. So much to learn in that room.