I read several of the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child, and we had a set for our sons. I watched the television program for several seasons when it originally aired. So when we were planning this trip and looking for what to do in Minnesota, a friend suggested we look into the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove. To prepare for the trip, I re-read the books (and some I never had) and rewatched the first six seasons of the TV show. DH on the other hand was not familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder, so he wasn't sure what the fuss was about.
We left from Worthington, Minnesota, on a Friday morning with the intent of visiting the museum in Walnut Grove, then driving through Sleepy Eye, and on to Mankato. These are places that are mentioned in the books and places that Laura and her family visitied during their lifetime. I wanted to see where they might have traveled themselves and imagine what it must've been like for them.
We stopped in Fulda, Minnesota, at a Casey's to get a drink for the day. Casey's is a midwestern convenience store / gas station, and we had discovered them earlier in the trip. They have a 99-cent fountain drink deal for the summer. While in Fulda, there was a woman collecting donations for the local VFW, so we talked with her for a while. She did tell us that the Fulda school kids were on a field trip to Walnut Grove, just heads up! It actually played to our advantage because much like how we were able to listen in on the field trip at the Jolly Time popcorn museum, we got to hear part of the presentation to the school group at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum!
We arrived in Walnut Grove about 15 minutes before the museum opened, so we took a few pictures outside.
Once the museum was open, we, and the 6 other people who were there early, got our tickets and set off to explore. The museum is set up with most of the information about Laura and her family in the first half of the Depot building, and information about the television show in the second half.
Here are some pictures from Laura's life. Things that belonged to her.
Here are some pictures of Laura and her husband.
Here are some pictures of Laura's family.
Here are some pictures from the TV show.
Here are some pictures from other parts of the museum.
Across the street is a new acquisition for the museum. They are working on restoration at this time. But what caught my eye were these tulips in bloom! I had been wanting to see tulips but had been too late for them each place we had been up to this point. So that was a really nice surprise for me!
We left the museum and headed east to Sleepy Eye. The only thing I had marked to see in Sleepy Eye is a statue of Linus from Peanuts. It's on display in front of the local library. Charles Schultz named Linus after a real person named Linus Maurer who was from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and a good friend.
From Sleepy Eye, we continued east towards Mankato where we stopped at a state park - which will be the content for our next blog entry.
~ Cindy D.
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