Visiting the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Homestead in South Dakota | Eater

"Standing on the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota, I was deeply affected by the chance to step into a re-creation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s frontier life: corn‑cob doll–making, hay twisting, pony rides, washing clothes by hand, and covered‑wagon rides pulled by draft horses all aim to teach by doing. The site, which draws more than 20,000 visitors a year and is managed by operations manager Ann Lesch, begins at a visitors’ center and gift shop stocked with sunbonnets, covered‑wagon magnets, and The Little House Cookbook and sends guests on a self‑directed trail past a sod dugout and a tar‑paper shanty—modern re‑creations built to convey how small, dark, and cramped period housing really was. Ten acres of wheat, oats, and corn are planted not for profit but as living demonstration crops—the oats feed the horses, wheat is used in grinding demos, and the corn is dried and transformed into corncob dolls—so visitors can visualize what Pa Ingalls had to farm to “prove up.”" - Amy McCarthy