Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up in the middle west as part of one of the many roaming pioneer families that built America. She was born in Wisconsin, lived in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota (then Dakota Territory) with her family often at the front edge of the sweeping westward wave of pioneers. Only the influence of her mother, who wanted her girls to have an education and some stability, kept Laura's ever-restless father from continuing to move ever onward.

Laura's life was not greatly different from many of the other young women who were her contemporaries, save that in her later years Laura revisited her childhood in memory, sharing her stories in a series of books that came to be known as "The Little House Books."

From her home in Mansfield, Missouri, where she and husband Almanzo Wilder eventually settled and remained until the end of their lives, Laura returned to the prairies and forests of her youth in her writings.

Several of her past homes still exist, others have been reconstructed or have had museums built at their sites. The site where most of Laura's books take place is:

DeSmet, South Dakota is the location of several of Laura's homes and home sites, and museums. This pages shows pictures of these sites as well as pictures from the town cemetery where several family members rest.

The books were written at:

Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri is the location of the farm in the Ozarks of southern Missouri where Laura and Almanzo Wilder eventually settled. They built a home from the materials on the farm. It is here that Laura wrote her books. This page shows pictures of their farm, home, and the town cemetery where the graves of Laura, Almanzo, and daughter Rose are.

Rose Wilder Lane, Laura and Almanzo's daughter, tells the story of her life in 1938

Laura's Friends - the stories of some of the characters in the "Little House" books

Laura Ingalls Wilder Timeline - important dates and dates of publications -new October 9, 2002

Book Review: "Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings" - by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Stephen W. Hines, reviewed by D. A. Houdek -new October 9, 2002

Life in the Big Woods - looking at the actual boundaries of the "Big Woods" and what the land, forest, and waters looked and sounded like -new October 9, 2002

Ingalls Family Genealogy

Review of "Ghost in the Little House"

Research the Ingalls history, family path, and genealogy for yourself in the paper trail they left behind. Visit the amazing database collections of Ancestry.com:

including the entire US census online:

Free Land

by Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter, tells an alternate version of the early years in DeSmet in a fiction story that combines the experiences of her parents and grandparents. Many of the incidents in this book are real but were omitted from Laura's books. "Free Land" is darker and harsher than Laura's books; more of an adult story. It's well worth reading but don't expect another "Little House" book out of it. (fiction)

The Little House Guidebook by William Anderson (non-fiction)

West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco 1915
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Roger Lea MacBride (Editor)

Laura spent some time in San Francisco visiting her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. These are letters she wrote back home to Almanzo. They are very entertaining reading, showing Laura's spirit, charm, and witty observations.

 Young Pioneers

by Rose Wilder Lane

Originally published as "Let the Hurricane Roar." This book by Laura's daughter, Rose, takes the experiences of her parents, Laura and Almanzo Wilder, and those of her grandparents, Charles and Caroline Ingalls, and blends them into the story of a young couple setting off to pioneer on the prairies. Molly is only 16, and her new husband David is 18 when they set out alone to make their lives, farm, and new home. There are shades of Laura's "Little House on the Prairie" and "On the Banks of Plum Creek" in this short but well-done book. It's well worth reading but don't expect another "Little House" book out if it--Rose had her own distinctive writing style and this book, like her "Free Land" is more of an adult's story than a children's book.

On the Way Home

This is Laura's diary account of their trip from DeSmet, South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri in a covered wagon and their early days finding and settling at Rocky Ridge farm. This book serves as the bridge between the original Little House book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the later series by Roger Lea MacBride about her daughter Rose's life as a child in Missouri.

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