Prairie Adventure: Walnut Grove’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

Walnut Grove.

If you have met Laura Ingalls primarily through the television series then you might be more familiar with Walnut Grove than some of the other Laura Ingalls spots.

It’s a tiny tiny town with nary a recognizable restaurant or grocery store.

We ate lunch (and breakfast) at Nellie’s cafe because it was named Nellie and because it was there.

The town features a handful of Laura treasure stops though.

Of course there is nearby Plum Creek. The Ingalls family lived at Plum Creek but the girls walked into town to school.

The site of the original Masters Inn, Laura’s Walnut Grove’s only lodging place, is right downtown.

The bell that Pa gave up a new pair of boots to donate money toward is still right in Walnut Grove – high up in a tower at the English Lutheran church. Pa’s real bell.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum is the main destination.

This is one of the spots we visited all those years ago.

Not all that much has changed in Walnut Grove since all those years ago.

But a few things have.

The entrance to the museum is different.

The gift shop is larger and more modern – an improvement for the better.

It’s where Otto chose to make his second trip purchase – a coon skin cap.

Mosely made her first souvenir purchase – supplies for her doll ….. tiny wire-rimmed glasses, a doll-sized fan and a miniature slate.

I stashed away a few tiny gifts that will reappear in stockings later this year and we purchased the traditional Christmas ornament souvenir.

The museum features a small version of the town of Walnut Grove during Laura’s days. We walked through a depot with a large collection of memorabilia from the television series. There was an old fashioned home with a sweet collection of letters in Laura’s handwriting and replica versions of her kitchen. We stood in a sod house and the town jail and a settler’s home.

The kids especially got a kick out of the small school room.

Inside one of the exhibits there were a lot of hands on pioneer exhibits.

This was a new area and was really pleasantly updated.

The walls were filled with quotes from the Little House books. There were stations for the kids to wash clothes in a wash tub, hang clothes on the line, color your own Charlotte doll, try on pioneer clothing and more.

Inside the next space a covered wagon was set up and you could get an idea of the effort and challenge it required to travel in such a fashion.

This exhibit also had a grocery store, bank, post office and printer’s shop all set up for interactive play.

I know the town of Walnut Grove doesn’t boast a great deal of creature comforts, but the museum is a charming stop that is important on the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The changes the museum has made have improved it greatly and the staff is just so enthusiastic about their jobs that the experience is spot on.