Our Great Big Trip to the Ozark Mountains, Missouri and the Story I finally tell of how Laura Ingalls Wilder became my hero

This is the story of how I visited the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was a dream come true. Here is the story. 

Way back in January Scott surprised me on my 50th birthday with a trip to make a childhood {well not just childhood but really lifetime} dream come true. 

That post is back HERE in case you want to have a peek. 

Our first day was travel of course and settling into our hotel. We stayed at the cozy and spacious Bradford Inn {the the most darling breakfast place we've ever eaten at called Steamy Joes Cafe}  

Let's just jump to the good part! The whole reason behind this trip: 

Day One

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

I hesitate to even write this post because it is difficult to find the words. But I will try. Here is the story in a shortened version. It's long but I finally wanted to tell this story. 

When I was eight years old my family traveled from our home in Connecticut to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It was a 5 full day drive (I think -- or was it more?) 

My parents {but mostly my Dad -- although I can't imagine the 'behind the scenes' work my Mom did to make it all happen} were very adventurous} 

One of the places we stopped along the way was called Wall Drug Store in South Dakota. This huge place was lots of fun for a family of five. For my two big brothers and I it was a welcome change of scenery (as we drove from CT). There was a huge penny candy shop inside. There were cowboy boots and hats. Snacks of all kinds and ice-cream. I remember lemonade and tiny magic tricks you could buy and little toys. It wasn't quite like the website I just clicked on but the sign out front is exactly as I remember it. It was also icy cold inside, a welcome relief for us traveling in a brown station wagon with no air conditioning! 

I'm getting to the part and how it all started. 

Inside Wall Drug was a bookstore. I can still see it in my mind. {I've always had a thing for an independent bookstore - even back when I was eight}. I remember the dark wooden floors, the shelves, the lighting, and that new book smell. I was walking along with my Dad. 

We stopped at a chapter book children's section and right on the top shelf were books I'd never come across yet in my life. Little did I know then that those books would have a permeant spot in my home library for the rest of my life. I didn't notice the books at first but noticed instead a framed black and white picture. {it was a copy of course} This picture showed a family. A mother, father, and three daughters. Old fashioned. There was something about that picture that caught my eye. Something that pulled me in. I remember just staring at it. It was a picture of Pa and Ma Ingalls with Mary, Laura, and Carrie. 

My Dad picked up a book from the bookcase. It was Little House on the Prairie. {the second book in the series - but the most popular}. He said these exact words to me. "You'd like this. Do you want it?"

I said yes. 

I don't know exactly what my brothers got to pick out at Wall Drug. But I know I walked out with a a brown paper bag and a soft cover chapter book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Reading this you might think I am being dramatic. But really I'm not. That book changed my life. 

I cracked open to the first chapter and read, "A long time ago when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and little girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left the little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin." 

I read and read and read until I finished that book and wanted the one that came before it. 

I don't have a memory of how I got to read the rest of the series. I no longer have my copy from when I was eight of Little House on the Prairie {wish I did} and thinking back to my childhood bedroom I don't think I owned all of Laura's other books in the series. I must have gotten them out of the library but I'm not exactly sure. I know I read them all. 

Why at 50 would I think it a gift to travel to Missouri to visit her home and museum? Why when I saw her house up on the hill would I smile so big and for so long it hurt by he end of the day? Why when I left would I feel sad? 

It is truly difficult to explain. It's just a feeling. When I read her books starting at eight years old I felt an undeniable connection. I had nothing in common with this girl in the books except for my love of family and the power in a father/daughter relationship and the strength and love in a mother. That I knew a lot about just like Laura. That part I lived. But I also knew right off the bat that her stories, although filled with sweetness, love of family, grit through trials, and a fiddle that could make anything better, were not fairy tales. 

No, not fairy tales at all. Sometimes I think people who might have read a few of her books think they are sweet-as-pie and she had a charming childhood. I met a few of those people on our tour at the house. Nothing wrong with that. 

At this point in my life I can say that I've read every single thing Laura has written herself (much more than just that series -- she wrote a column for years called Farm Journalist, books before the Little House series written for adults, etc). And I've read everything any one else has written about Laura. There is so much more to her story than the Little House Series. 

I think I had that feeling when I was eight -- on a much more simple level of course. I knew there was something about Laura Ingalls Wilder that intrigued me. I learned later and through so much inspired research that she lived in poverty most of her life -- at least up until she was 75 years old. No, her life was far from a Fairy Tale. 

When I was eight I didn't want to dress up in a sun bonnet and act like her. I just wanted to be her. Really. I wanted to be a teacher like she was, although you should know that she despised being a teacher and did not want to). I wanted grit and determination like she had. I wanted to fall in love like she did. I wanted to be married but never want to leave home like she felt. I related to her in so many ways. And I never let go of her stories. 

That is my story. The story of having a hero. 

Years later after we'd been married a while I began saying to Scott, "someday we we are retired will you take me to the home where Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the books?" He always said yes. I always felt confident and comfortable that someday years and year from now I would see that white farmhouse up on the hill in Mansfield, Missouri. I held that dream in my heart as I continued to read everything I could get my hands on from Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Then on January 5, 2023 I sat in an Italian restaurant and opened a box. A card was inside. It said, "A Family Trip to Visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum". I was shocked. 

And as I type that it was just yesterday. And I miss it already. 

So let me show you around -- around the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was not as good as I thought. It was better. I felt even more connected and in some ways it felt like I came full circle and closed where my heart opened on that day in Wall Drug when I was eight. 

Arriving in Mansfield, MO

When we arrived in Mansfield (we stayed about an hour and a half away in Branson, MO) I jumped out to take this photo. Loved even this sign!

We had to stop at the museum to buy our tickets but I didn't want to look around yet. It was going to be a really warm day and I wanted to see the house while it was still cool outside. 

Walking Up the Hill

When I saw her home up on the hill it nearly took my breath away. I'd seen the photos on line and in books for so many years that I just wouldn't believe that I was standing in front of it. 

Tiny, little, perfect front porch for Laura who was only 4'11. 

And look at me! Standing right where she stood!

It was charming from the first moment. The white little house. The shape of it, a little farm house. The porch, the very porch that Laura stood on. It was all so beautiful. 

We got to her house way before the tour inside began -- I wanted time to take it all in. We walked around and took pictures of her home. 

I loved how she had a screened in porch as well. Perfect for summer evenings. Oh how I wish I could sit on a rocker and talk with her. 

Laura's Kitchen

The first room we walked into was Laura's charming kitchen. Her pride and joy was this stove. More than anything I'm sure she ever thought she'd have. 

She must have ordered this tea from the Vermont Country Store way back when! From the very store we visited last summer in Weston, VT! 

Also on top of her stove were these little jars maybe for spices. 

This kitchen was created by rolling down the old log home that was on the property when Laura, Almanzo, and little girl Rose has first bought the land. They had lived in the log cabin for four years before they started to turn it into this home. So their kitchen you can see in the photos was actually the log cabin. 

Everything that is in the home was made by Almanzo and Laura themselves. This is what made the kitchen so charming and wonderful. There were so many intricate details all created with hard work and love. A small kitchen but everything was created for specific function and so it must have been one hard working kitchen. 

See that built in baking center to the left in that picture? Almanzo built it so that 4'11 Laura could roll out her dough and look out the windows. 

Here's a closer look:

Loved these old canisters of Laura's 

Don't you just love her sink and counters attached. She was thrilled to have plumbing inside the house. After all of those years traveling by covered wagon and then living in a log cabin, to have a sink in her kitchen must have been amazing! 

There are two sets of stairs in her home. These narrow stairs were one way up to their bedroom from the kitchen. 

This is the passage through looking from the kitchen into the dining room. All of those drawers and cabinets built by Almanzo! 

In this photo you can see the dining room and the kitchen including the passage through. 

Best darling farmhouse idea: Almanzo built these ledges above the windows for Laura's collection of teacups. 

Every inch of space had a purpose. I just love the little benches and the cabinet beneath them. 

Another look at Laura's baking center

Cutest little towel rack! 

Laura's Bedroom (downstairs)

This room was added on (later for Rose) and was painted Laura's favorite color, green. 

Laura framed these Currier and Ives photos from a magazine. I can imagine that they reminded her of special days. 

Although I don't have any information if this is accurate I can imagine that this one below made Laura think of her her days she went for sleigh rides in the winter with Almanzo. (Little Town on the Prairie) 

Her first time on the train (By the Shores of Silver Lake) 

Laura's Writing Room

I gasped when I took a step up from that bedroom and saw her desk. Her desk! 

Her pencils from writing the books right here. 

There is a beautiful picture window that looks out (from her writing desk) into the hills, the trees, her front yard. Just beautiful! 

This part is tricky to explain but there are two steps up from her writing room to a landing (leads upstairs) and two more steps down into the parlor. 

Laura's Parlor

Here you can see the way it looks from the writing area up and into the parlor. 

This is looking back into the writing room area and up the stairs. (standing in the parlor) 

The clock that Almanzo bought as a second wedding anniversary gift to Laura (The First Four Years) 

Laura's Library

Right off the parlor is the library. Instead of just book cases in the actual room, the library is it's own room with built in shelves. So lovely. 

Laura's Rock House

When Rose was a successful author, she built her parents this home she called the rock house on the same property. You can't see them -- it's a drive or a walk in the woods. Laura and Almanzo lived in the rock house for 7 years. Rose wanted it to be a 'retirement' home for them; a home away from the hard life of farming. (at one point Rose lived in the farm house - adding in pluming and a bathroom) After 7 years they missed the "old home place" and moved back into their farmhouse.

They rented it out and eventually sold it to a family. Eventually the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum bought it and restored it. 

Laura had a beautiful china collection in the Rock House. 

The views were spectacular! 

The Museum

After our time in the museum I walked up the hill one more time for one more moment taking it all in...

So grateful for this trip and this time. I will go back one day. One day was just not enough for me. 

On our way back to Branson, MO I wanted to stop at the cemetery. It was hot and dusty and I was just glad I could see everything. 

Thank you Laura Ingalls Wilder -- for you teaching, hope, inspiration, and love.