Little House Discussed

The official trailer for the Little House on the Prairie reboot has made its way to my feed, so of course I have to share it with you. I am hoping that I am right about what I see, that we are starting out in the Big Woods of Wisconsin before heading to the Kansas Prairie. Either that or the Ingalls family made a lot more friends in Kansas than we thought. From what I understand, the Little House on the Prairie reboot is much more faithful to the books than the Michael Landon silliness. I look forward to next month to see if I'm right!  

Reading the Little House books over and over again during my younger years, I felt like I knew the geography of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood by heart. I would map out the transition from the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the Kansas prairie , to the banks of Plum Creek , and finally to the ultimate destination of De Smet . It wasn't until I got older and started diving into the actual biographies that I learned about a glaring, empty timeline between On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake . An entire, heartbreaking chapter of the family’s life was completely erased from the series. It made me wonder why a writer who dedicated her life to chronicling her upbringing chose to completely skip over a town called Burr Oak, Iowa. A side note: Mrs. Wilder's autobiography, Pioneer Girl, was a revelation. No matter how often I read it, I learn something new each time.  A Dark and Heavy Chapter My personal conclusion is that Burr Oak just wasn't a happy place...

When I read Little House in the Big Woods , one of my favorite parts of the book was the description of the "sugaring off" and of Laura's extended family, with all her aunts and uncles and cousins. As I read the later books, Laura's friends in De Smet became my friends too. My favorite parts of By the Shores of Silver Lake , The Long Winter , L ittle Town on the Prairie , and These Happy Golden Years were the parties, socials, and gatherings with the neighbors. While I did plenty of reading regarding Laura Ingalls Wilder and her extended circle of family and friends, it wasn't until the Internet came to town that I learned more about the people she fondly (and not so fondly) mentioned in her books. What follows is a nutshell version of what happened to Laura Ingalls Wilder's family and friends. Hopefully, we can expand the details of all these individuals in future posts, -if we haven't already. Laura's Immediate Family Pa ( Charles Ingalls ): The u...