Understanding the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder

DE SMET, S.D. (KELO) — You’ve probably read her books and watched the television show based on her family, but do you know the full story behind the life and legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder?

Living in De Smet, South Dakota left quite an impression on her, so much so that it inspired her to write novels based on the time she spent there.

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Homesteaders started arriving to the De Smet area in 1879.

“It was named after Father De Smet, who was a Jesuit priest,” Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society executive director Mary Jo Wertz said.

The railroad is what brought people to De Smet, including Charles Ingalls, a railroad timekeeper, whose family was the first to arrive to De Smet. Of course, his daughter, Laura, was a beloved children’s book author. Laura spent her first winter in De Smet in a Surveyors’ House, which was originally along Silver Lake.

“Laura would write about that house in her book, By the Shores of Silver Lake. Laura, as a 12 year old, thought it was a huge house when in fact, it’s a very small house, but she had been living in dugouts and one room shanties,” former Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society director Cheryl Palmlund said.

The Surveyors’ House is just one of the ways the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society helps you learn about Laura’s story. You can also view family artifacts and step inside De Smet’s first school, which Laura and her sister, Carrie, attended. A few blocks away, you can check out the Ingalls home. Laura didn’t live there, but it was built by Pa Ingalls himself.

“We have this history here where you can actually see the actual places that she lived, worked and studied in, and you can touch what she touched, stand where she stood,” Wertz said.

Laura didn’t actually didn’t write her first book until she was in her sixties. By then, her daughter, Rose, who was the highest-paid female writer at the time, was the one who encouraged her mother.

“When you see the letters between the two of them, you see how Rose literally taught. She basically gave her mother a college course on how to write. She’s like, when you frame a story, this is how you do it, and when you develop a character, this is how you do it. She is giving her not what to write, but how to write,” Wertz said.

Five of her books took place in De Smet.

“She just is telling her family stories piece by piece as she goes, and as a result of that, De Smet became the heart of the story because it was the heart of her maturing,” Wertz said.

Which helped put the town on the map.

“She was one of the original founders of this town. Her work has made other people recognize this town, come visit it, see its history and see its value,” Wertz said.

Laura’s stories are something many can relate to.

“It’s a little girl telling you what it was like to be a little girl on the prairie, and that kind of history is so raw, human and relatable,” Wertz said.

“She was such a descriptive writer that they want to relive those books,” Palmlund said.

As readers immerse themselves in Laura’s writing, they learn lessons with every page they turn.

“Holy cow, what lessons can’t you learn? The first thing I would say is resilience. She was resilient. Her family was resilient. The stuff that they faced and had to overcome shows what humanity can do when they’re seeking the good because they did,” Wertz said.

And in the decades since Laura published her first book, her willingness to tell her story has left a lasting impact on the town she once called home.

“She is part of our blood. She’s part of who and what we are. You can’t turn a corner in this town without seeing her in some way, shape or form. She’s part of our history. She’s part of who and what we are, and she will be here until the end,” Wertz said.

Staff at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society are also excited about a Little House on the Prairie reboot coming to Netflix.

There is also a Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead you can visit near De Smet, which will open again in late May.