Razzberry Hill

It's the week of my birthday! May the 4th be with you.

I decided to treat myself and head up to DeSmet, SD which is the town where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and where several of her books were based on. I first read Little House In The Big Woods in 3rd grade. A friend of mine told me how much she loved it and encouraged me to read it. I did and it began a lifelong love of not only the stories but of the history of the pioneer spirit, their struggles and the skills they learned to survive and prosper. It is where my desire to learn how to spin, knit, garden, can foods, sew and quilt began. I remember reading about how Laura's mother made straw hats. That is something I'd still like to try. I also want to make a braided rug. And sew a late 1800's dress complete with a corset, hand crocheted lace and a hoop skirt. (I have the fabric)

It definitely is a building block in the things I do today so this was an important trip for me.

It was exciting to see the first sign showing De Smet.

It was funny to see that the Wall Drug signs popped up almost as soon as I crossed the SD border.
(Note all the water. They had about 14" of snow about 2 weeks earlier)

I did not know the speed limit is 80 mph in SD!
I only went 75. Better gas mileage.

It was surprisingly emotional to see the railroad track.
This is the same rail bed that was used for the train that basically brought everything the town needed to survive in the prairie during the winter. It made me think of how much all of these people went through.

I arrived at the Ingall's Homestead where there is now a visitor center.
The homestead was sold to a family who turned it into an educational center for kids. Kind of like Vala's but without all the food. They had a fantastic supply of books and gifts. I bought a season pass ($15) so I could do the tour the next day which would be with a school group. I looked forward to seeing how the kids would react to all the activities.

I was also given a map of the cemetery. I definitely wanted to visit this to pay my respects to the people I had read about.

A reproduction of the Ingall's claim home is on the left and the other buildings were brought in from around the area to preserve them. (just like Vala's) The original homestead was 160 acres. I didn't ask if the property is still the entire 160 acres but it seemed like it was. It was pretty big.

Little Tent on the Prairie.

The visitor center closed and I had the entire place to myself. They had told me I could wander around and go into any of the buildings as long as I closed the doors after I was done. Their willingness to allow me to do this was amazing to me. Such nice people. Very trusting and willing to help make this a great visit.

This school was on the far southwest corner of the property.

Wow. This is pretty cool.

I think they did a great job re-creating the feel of the school.

Teacher's desk. I took this photo for you Leslie.

I'm glad they included this poem which Laura wrote about in her story.

Lucky prairie kids to have a fridge.
Ha ha ha !
I noted the lack of insulation in the building. I bet it was miserable in the winter and summer.

They even had an outhouse.

This little guy was waiting for me to go away.

It was a two seater. I have used one of these before. Definitely a "hover pee".

Then I hiked over to the church.

I passed the slough. This was prominently noted in Laura's books. This was the smaller one by their house.
It was filled with birds. In fact there were birds everywhere. It was very noisy but a really nice kind of noise. The clouds over the prairie were spectacular. You can almost imagine what it must have been like 150 years ago.

The church and the prairie sky.

Beautiful steeple.

It was very echoey inside and very well preserved.

Interesting.

Big sky. Beautiful.
The sound of redwing blackbirds, barn swallows, geese, ducks, meadowlarks and other birds filled the air.
It was not humid, temps in the 60's and a light breeze. A perfect day.

Clouds over the Ingall's homestead.

Then I visited this building. This appeared to be where the bulk of the children's activities were held.

I could see several activity stations set up.

Rope making. Very nice old rope makers.

MUCH more colorful than the jute ropes that the Boy Scouts made.

Awwww.....corn cob dolls. At least their interpretation of them.

This book looks a little battered and well used.
(I still have all of the books I had as a kid)

Wheat flour station.
I was able to turn the coffee grinder and see how it worked. Surprisingly it was ground fairly fine.
It would have been a very coarse, nutty flour. Rather flat due to no yeast.

I have never seen one of these before.

Alan's parents have one of these in their basement.
I always wanted to try it out.

I like that they posted pages from the Long Winter book on the walls to correlate with the different activities.

I imagine this was the type of sled wagon which was used by Almanzo and Cap.
Cool.

I didn't get a pic of their example of hay sticks but there is one that I took later.

Farm implements on display.

Next I visited the barn.

No animals in it but looks like there could be.

Stairs. Intriguing......

The floor was fairly thin plywood and there were cracks where I could see the dirt floor below.
Freaked me out. Did not like walking around up here.
But they did have a lot of cool (heavy) things up here.
I took my pics quickly and left quickly.

It would be a lot of fun to ride in this.
I had a friend in the 3rd grade who had a pony and a pony cart. He would stop by and give me rides. His family was poor and their house wasn't very nice but the kids all liked going over to play. I remember when he got into trouble his mom made him go out and cut off a switch from the bush outside. We all felt sorry for him as we left his house. I also remember when we all used his toaster to brown the edges of paper to make it look old. That was probably what he got in trouble for.

Then I visited the claim house (shanty).
It said they built it based on the info from the books and the improvement records.
I don't know if it is correct but I always imagined it originally as a shanty with one short wall and a taller wall opposite with the sloped roof and then when it was enlarged a mirror image was added to the other side to make a peaked roof. I liked that they also included the additional room which Laura's dad added for Mary's piano.

The three phases of the house.

The legal documents.
(interesting)

More info about the house.

I remember this from the books.
I never followed this schedule.
No way.

This is cute. Made me laugh.

Nothing in the house was owned or used by the Ingall's.
But it was a good representation.

It has been a long time since I saw a braille book.
Still looks hard to read.

I have an old machine like this. I have a replacement band to make the treadle work.
I have always wanted to see how well it works and to get an idea what it was like for women to use it.
Compared to hand sewing it must have been amazing. Hard to imagine.

Ugh. I imagine women had very strong arms back then.
People now are not in as good a shape as they were back then.
Imagine if you had the good health care like you do now and did everything manual like it was done back then.

Not the same soap recipe I have.
I wonder if the soap has to sit a while so it is not caustic.
There are some modern recipes which do note this.

My grandma in Virginia had an old washing machine with this crank thing.
That memory is a blast from the past!

I liked seeing that they mad a whatnot.

And that they included a little carved jewelry box.

And a statue to represent the little shepherdess.
This is definitely not a shepherdess.

Cool. Instructions and an example.
Something I want to try.

The back of the house.

With stunted cottonwood trees around it.
Not sure if these are seedless trees which do tend to not grow well or if the weather affected these.
They looked terrible.

The well. I learned later it actually works.
My moms parents had a well too. It had wooden boards over it. We were told to stay away from it.
We did.

The sod roof barn.
Not sure this is how it was made but ok.

The chickens seemed happy.

This was amazing to see. this area was fenced off from the rest of the area.
The stone is the site of the original claim home.
Laura's dad planted all 5 of these cottonwoods.
I didn't realize they were so close to town.
I imagined the rolling plains blocked their view of the town and imagined their home was not on a hill but down lower.
Now I know better.

This is an example of a claim shanty.

Tight quarters, easy to clean.
Imagine if you had 3 kids.
Ugh.

An example of a the home the Ingall's had along Plum Creek.

Sod walls.

Dirt floor. I remember Laura talking about her mom sweeping the dirt floor.
Hopefully it didn't get wet.

The roof. I felt like this wasn't that sturdy.
It looked like it could collapse at any moment.

You would just walk right by this and not know there was a house.

Looking towards the Big Slough which Laura and Carrie got lost in.
Somewhere over there was the Wilder claim. Nobody could tell me where it was.
I imagine it would be in the record books. I drove around and it is all part of the town now.

They had another building which had a timeline of Laura's family's travels.
Well done for kids and interesting.

Interesting way to note the country's history alongside the family history.

A covered wagon you can get in. Pretty cool.
When I was little my dad had purchased a wagon like this and had it sitting in the front yard like a yard ornament.
He would occasionally hook it up to the lawn tractor and pull us and our friends around the neighborhood.
I remember having to apply the brake to help him when we went downhill.
We played a lot in that thing.

This is the information board when you first drive up to the homestead.
It gives some info about all of the historical sites and what is offered.

This will be on my agenda for tomorrow.
Looking forward to it.

I walked around to go up to the original homestead site.
The trees are enormous and have appeared to have had a hard life. They were very twisted.
I imagine they have seen many storms, tornadoes and hard winters.
But they were huge.

It was a weird feeling to touch the trees that Laura's dad planted.
They are just trees and felt just like any other cottonwood tree I have touched but these were special trees.

They all had broken branches all over the ground around them. Especially this one.
It made me wonder which tree belonged to which girl. Laura said her dad planted one for each girl.
Did they help him with this? Did he tell them which tree was theirs. Did he plant them in order based on their age?
That would mean this one would be either for Ma or Grace.
Questions unanswered.

The plaque on the marker stone.

The view from the site which looks out on the Big Slough (rhymes with "blue") and the town.
At night you could see the lights of town. Imagine what that must have been like when the first lights were lit.
All around in the area there were sloughs. A lot of water everywhere. Not conducive for growing. This is apparent in the lack of fields that are there now. I imagine the modern tractors help. There were a lot of cattle farms.