Category Archives: Homesites in the Press

Good and Bad Literary News in Laura’s World

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Bad news first, shall we?

Amy Lauters’ Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, Literary Journalist is one of many Laura-related books published by the University of Missouri Press

The bad news in the world of Laura comes from The Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Missouri. The University of Missouri System announced earlier this week that it was going to shut down its press. This is sobering for the Laura Ingalls Wilder community, as many books—William Holtz’s Ghost in the Little House, Amy Lauters’ The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, John Miller’s Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Stephen Hines’ Little House in the Ozarks among them—were published by the University of Missouri Press. (Rose Wilder Lane herself had personal ties to the University of Missouri.)

Bummer.

But the good news—it is fabulous. Pioneer Girl is going to be published! That’s right, the autobiography Laura wrote before the Little House books were published is going to be available through the South Dakota State Historical Society Press in the summer of 2013.

We’ve been waiting a long time for this one. Die-hard fans have copies of the manuscript, which has always been available through the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa. But obtaining it has never been easy. The SDSHS Press has negotiated a deal with the Little House Heritage Trust to publish an annotated version of the autobiography, largely on the strength of 2010 LauraPalooza speaker Pamela Smith Hill’s extraordinary 2007 biography Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life.

Pre-order your copy (cost is $35) by emailing the SDSHS Press at orders@sdshspress.com.

One door closes, another opens.

“Little Trip on the Prairie”

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In 2008, FamilyFun magazine was looking for a writer for a Little House travel story. A colleague of mine suggested me to her editor, and after I submitted a proposal (de rigueur in the magazine world), I was assigned the story.

My story about traveling to the upper-Midwestern Little House sites, "Little Trip on the Prairie," appeared in the June 2010 issue of FamilyFun magazine.

The following summer, my husband, my kids and I were scheduled to visit Pepin, Walnut Grove, and De Smet — in that order. Which we did do, sort of. Except my daughter got really sick just before the trip, which meant she and her Dad didn’t meet up with me and her brother until the two of us were already in De Smet. She got to hit Walnut Grove on the way back, but she missed Pepin completely. Plus we had to buy her and her Dad a whole new plane ticket, which the magazine would not reimburse.

From a parenting and a financial perspective, it was a pretty dodgy situation. From a professional one, it was definitely a little tricky—but we got it done.

I will say that I highly recommend visiting the Little House sites when you don’t have a photographer following you around.

The story was ultimately printed at the beginning of the summer of 2010. (My kids quite enjoyed their tiny taste of fame.)

“No Dogs Allowed.”

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The homesite in Independence, Kansas claims the distinction of being the very first homesite I ever visited, way back in 2001. I’d just moved to the southwestern edge of Kansas the year before from Boston, and I planned my visit to Independence around a trip back to the east coast. It was a couple hours out of the way, but I was heading for an eight-hour drive anyway, all the way diagonally across Kansas from the Kansas City airport. I had time.

Back then, the site was just starting to gain momentum. It didn’t have regular hours, or a website (it was 2001, after all). But I had gathered what information I could online and navigated my way south from Kansas City, almost to the Oklahoma border.

My excitement was palpable, at once prickly and whooshing through me. From behind the wheel, I saw a sign, green with white lettering: “Verdigris River.” With a shuddering intake of breath I looked down as I drove over a small bridge, but the brush was so thick I couldn’t identify any water. But still! I had driven over the Verdigris! The same Verdigris River mentioned all over the book! The one that likely fed the creek that Mr. Edwards had braved in flooded conditions, clothes on his head and potatoes in his pockets, just to bring Laura and Mary their Christmas candy.

It’s like that when you first approach the homesites. You see the signs: Lake Thompson or Plum Creek or Pepin. Your heart begins to flutter in a speed directly proportional to the level of your fandom. Your breathing seems to stop.

That Sunday in June, as the sign directed me to turn south off route 160 toward the tiny town of Wayside, Kansas, my anticipation grew. By the time I approached the wide expanse of fields and saw the fenced-off log cabin replica, I was so excited I almost forgot to park. But I managed it, then walked over to the fence, where I was greeted by this handwritten sign:

Ever see that Charlie Brown special “Snoopy Come Home”? Specifically this part (and the song beginning at :33)? And do you remember how you felt? 

Then you know.

Twelve years later, I’m happy to say, the site is much different. And today, May 6, 2012, the Sunday edition of Tulsa World provides a great rundown on the site and what it’s like to visit. I’m pretty picky about my Little House articles; this seems well done.