Do you have a favorite Little House site? Why is it your favorite? Share your memories in the comment section and be entered in a drawing for a copy of my book Rose Wilder Lane’s San Francisco. In two weeks I will let the computer at random.org pick the winners. There will be several opportunities throughout the summer to win a copy so if you miss out this time, keep trying. Feel free to enter the drawing, even if you already have a copy of the book. Win one for a friend or for your local library. Most of all have fun! (For more information on Rose Wilder Lane’s San Francisco visit PrairieMania.com.)
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Read-along: Golden Years
Ch. 23: Sandra Hume & Erin Blakemore
Ch. 24: Melanie Fishbane
Ch. 25: Jaime Brooks
Ch. 26: TLynn
Ch. 27: Wendy Corsi Staub
Ch. 24: Melanie Fishbane
Ch. 25: Jaime Brooks
Ch. 26: TLynn
Ch. 27: Wendy Corsi Staub
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Hmmm….although I have loved visiting all of the homesites that I’ve seen (haven’t visited Independence or Burr Oak…yet) and I loved DeSmet, I have to say Mansfield and Rocky Ridge is my favorite. I feel such a strong connection with Laura there. I love the fireplace and the story that goes with it. I love knowing that she and Almanzo worked so hard to realize their dream there. I loved being in her kitchen and imagining her working there. I could feel her presence as I stood on the porch steps. I could picture Laura and Almanzo sitting and reading in the evenings. And I love the Rock House and that it was there that she started writing the books that have been such a huge part of my life.
Okay, I know that I didn’t need to go on and on, but you did ask!
While I have never been fortunate enough to visit any of the homesites, I have to say that the one that has always intrigued me the most is DeSmet. While I am now utterly devoted to and fascinated with Laura as a person, what first pulled me in was the books and the stories she told. Because of that, and because so much focuses around DeSmet, I feel a pull to see what she told us about in her books. Hopefully someday…
The City of San Francisco … I can walk down the same hills Laura looked at in 1915 and not much has changed. I cross Market Street at Powell and hear the streetcar bell and the operators yelling and I wince when someone leans out too far and I hope they don’t hit their head, and if they happen to lean out and fall, I’ll post their letter for them.
The fog, unimaginably lonely off the ocean, still rolls over Alcatraz. I’ve seen the lights of The City from the prison island. I’ve looked for an ear spoon in Chinatown and eaten octopus in North Beach. I’ve bathed my feet in the Pacific Ocean and I wrote about the divine cleansing of the salt air.
I’ve taken a train and written my love from the first stop. “Made connections at Lincoln …”. I’ve hoped the dog was okay when I went away. I’ve gorged myself on scones and fish — sushi, not fair food, but I’m pretty sure I gained the same weight.
And I’ve seen the fireworks over the Bay, the sun washing over the Golden Gate, the entire City spread out from Rose’s Russian Hill home. And I’ve used “beautiful” so often that it stopped having any meaning. But what else can you say …?
Absolutely nothing for me will ever equal hearing Pa’s fiddle played on the lawn outside Rocky Ridge farmhouse during Laura Ingalls Wilder Days in Mansfield. Hearing “Old Dan Tucker” while sitting in Laura’s yard – Priceless!
I think I have to vote for DeSmet, particularly the Ingalls Homestead. We took the boys and slept in the covered wagons. The prairie is almost a character of its own in Laura’s book and being there on the homestead, I really felt it. Much more than at the Kansas site. It was awe inspiring and humbling. And as an extra bonus, my boys declared it the best vacation ever!!
Like one of the previous comments, I have never had the opportunity to visit any of the homesites. I think I would love to visit Rocky Ridge, mainly because Laura and Almanzo’s love story captures my imagination. I can just see “the man of the place” and his lady working together side by side. Aren’t we blessed to have all these places available to share?
My sister’s move to upstate New York made the perfect opportunity for me to visit the Wilder home. It was so exciting for me to visit the boyhood home of the “Farmer Boy” The house is painted a bright red and furnished just how it was when Almanzo was nine years old. The carpets on the floor are hand woven, and the pantry is well-stocked. I saw Mother’s loom set up in the attic bedroom next door to the bed that Royal and Almanzo shared. I even walked across the road to the meadow and down to Trout River. I was surprised by how small the house and the barns looked, it is described so grandly in the book. I even asked the guide if the barn was rebuilt according to Laura’s description and he assured me that it was done on the original foundations. It makes me appreciate how much more we have in the modern day that our ancestors would have considered luxuries. I hope to travel to Mansfield sometime in the next year. I have looked forward to seeing the house on Rocky Ridge for a long time!
My favorite homesite is De Smet. It is so beautiful in a way that is unlike the beauty of my own home state, that I just can’t help liking it. Add to that the fact that most of the books took place there, and it’s just so full of the “Laura history” that I know best!
I love Rocky Ridge Farm! I’ve visited numerous times as I was raised in Missouri (about 2 hours north of Mansfield) and have been a big LIW fan since third grade. I have also visited the sites in South Dakota and Kansas, but the Mansfield, MO site it my favorite.
I would like to plan a trip next summer to Mansfield. I just realized last week that I have a nephew living in Clarksville, TN and another living in KC. So now I have a family reason to travel there! Maybe I can get my sister, the nephews’ mother/grandmother to accompany me! I can’t wait to see the apple orchards, the stone house, and the place that Laura and Almanzo built themselves out of materials they found on the farm.