dorothy Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 homestead, etc. - How did you like it? Is it worth the trip? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Once Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 We passed through De Smet two summers ago. My dd was a *big* fan and she loved it. My 5 year old son thought it was cool too. There are two main sites. The first one has the in town buildings with a one room school house, one of Laura's childhood homes (with a tour) and a gift shop. There is also a tour of the house that Pa built that you pay for at the gift shop and drive to at another location. These sites are interesting and good but would suit an older crowd of kids and adults. http://discoverlaura.org/ This has the pictures of the buildings I remember at that site. The second site is an real hands on place for younger kids. Do not miss this one. It has several buildings, a larger gift shop and dugouts. It is the actual location that Laura's family lived on. It also has a school building with a tour guide that play acts a day at school for the kids as part of the wagon ride tour. There are horses and wagons to ride and a place to make your own rope, corncob doll and button toy. My children loved this place and I highly recommend it. They have a pagent each year that we missed. Here is a link to the site. The virtual tours are unremarkable but the actual visit was great. http://www.ingallshomestead.com/index.html One thing you may want to know is that the town of De Smet itself is fairly quiet and lacks a wide range of resaurants and grocery stores. We drove around it a bit and did not find very many resources to eat from. Perhaps we missed another side of the town....but we were shocked at the lack of food options. We spend one and a half days there and then traveled on. We could have enjoyed a longer stay but we had a schedule to keep. I do recollect that the cost of the tours and activites were not that high. We spent more on other locations that holiday. If you live close enough to drive or are flying in for an avid fan, it is time and money well spent. We still have fond memories. I believe that the site on Plum Creek is just a half day car ride over to MN. You might want to look at that one as well. I hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 We just went there, this past summer. DD8 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I LOVED the books growing up. DD is loving them now. My boys thought it was "ok" (I think they enjoyed it more than they admitted), but we did not go for them:). We only went to the homestead and not the sites in town because this was our detour on our way out to the Black Hills. The gift shop is nice - more country store than super commercial (although it is commercial.) We saw exhibits on a dugout, sod house and got to tour "Ma's little house." They had traditional activities to do in the little house - making button buzzers, braiding rugs, playing the organ, doing the washing outside. I've never seen so many little girls excited to do laundry:). We got to see a barn and played with some barn kittens. We took a covered wagon ride around the grounds and went to "school" to see what school was like back then. "Class" was taught by a woman who taught in a nearby one-room school house. I would have loved to have seen the sites in town, but we were out of time. DD wanted a bonnet, dress and pinafore, but we had not planned to spend that much money, but we did get a bonnet with the promise of making her a dress and a pinafore - which we did for her Halloween costume. DD wants to go back and "camp" in the covered wagons. Since we did not go when there were any major festivals there, it was a quiet, peaceful visit (with the exception of a few rude tourists and their cell phones.) One thing we did to make it more enjoyable was to listen to one of her books on cd in the car on the way there. Now I really want to see Almonzo's farm in New Yark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 I think the Plum Creek site is under 3 hours away. When we were planning our trip, we were deciding whether to stop in Pepin (a longer detour and too early in our journey from Chicago area to stop), Walnut Creek or DeSmet. DeSmet worked better into our plans and I had heard that there was more to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 We stopped for a day on our way home to Illinois from Yellowstone - worth every minute. Near the Surveyor's House some local kids from 4-H had their baby sheep and goats out and our kids got to play with them, too. Am hoping to get to other Little House sites and Rocky Ridge Farm as side trips on future road trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrid Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Yes, all of them. Some of them several times, in fact. I also have an exceedingly patient dh! :D I can say with certainty that ALL of the sits are worth the traveling if you're a big fan. Hallowed ground, you know. ;) The Malone, NY site is excellent, with the original house surviving and many new replica buildings built according to land records and drawings that Almanzo did for Laura to aid her in writing the "Farmer Boy" book. I'll echo the disappointment in the lack of restaurant options in DeSmet, but dd was thrilled to have a real meal at a Dairy Queen, since DQ Braziers don't exist here in Connecticut! Have a wonderfu trip! Astrid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Hey Ya'll- I'm just east of De Smet (sw of Sioux Falls) so if you get out here, give me a shout! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRAAB Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 We've been to all of them except the where Almanzo came from in New York. In fact, we've been to the South Dakota and Minnesota ones several times. We loved them, and hope to go back. Of course, I have all girls that are avid fans, so that might make a difference. For that matter, my dh is an avid fan. For us, it's been well worth the time and money it took to make the trips. Janet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 4boys Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Thanks for posting about this. I didn't know there was more than one place to visit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieJ Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 I used to live near the Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We visited it several times. As with the DeSmet SD site, it is a very small town and little to nothing for restaurant or fast food nearby. Admitedly, I moved from there 12 years ago, it could be different now. I loved the Banks of Plum Creek dug out site. Not much there, but if you are a fan of the books, you can imagine it. The big rock where the girls played, the depression in the hill where the sod house was.. Marshall MN is where i lived and there are hotels, and restaurants etc. I think it's about 45 min drive to Walnut Grove. Summers in Walnut Grove they used to do an outdoor pageant. I took our DD and her friend one summer..we all loved it, even if the actors were ...not so very good. It was still fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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