South Dakota to Minnesota

We left Spearfish on Thursday and headed out to Little House - we spent the night in a town called Chamberlain/Ocama half way across South Dakota. The Missouri river runs through it and it was awesome to see. We took a ride and saw some deer in the evening and had dinner out. The next morning we headed for DeSmet, SD - it is the town that Laura's family moved to towards the end. The girls were grown and Laura even taught school here. They had a beautiful home of which we got to tour. No picture taking was allowed but it had actually items that belonged to each of the girls and Ma & Pa. The lady who took us on the guided tour loved her job so much - she had so much history about the family that I learned quite a bit(and I thought I knew alot). We spent the night at Lake Thompson and were able to take a walk on the shoreline. The next morning we left for Minnesota - we arrived in a town called PipeStone. Took a tour of the national monument - I don't know alot about indian history and this was totally interesting. It is a scared ground and you have to have permission to do any digging - and to get permission you have to prove that you are an Indian. We overheard a man trying to get permission - it is not easy from what we could tell. The stone that they are digging for in buried deep in the ground and takes a long time to get to (if they can even find any). The stone is very red and smooth. Sunday we got up and weren't quite sure what we would do -
got in the jeeps and headed for Walnut Grove - it was very excited to arrive in the town of Walnut Grove and the first thing that you come to is Plum Creek - Little House fans know that Laura's house was dug into the creekside along the banks of Plum Creek. Years ago a family named Gordon bought the property but didn't know the history of Little House - they have been so generous in allowing visitors to drive on their property and visit the banks where the house was dug - they have erected a sign so you can see where the dugout house was. Back in town they have a museum which displays the items used in that period of time - they have recreated the dugout house, church and schoolroom. They have a replica of a covered wagon (I actually surprised Dick and set on the seat for a picture). It was truly worth the trip. I really think I belonged in that era.
We were lucky to see a young family and the girls were dressed in apron and bonnets and having a great time. The father is reading them the books.

We left there and drove to another town - Sanborn - a farmer had wanted to recreate the houses of that era and re built two sod houses and an outhouse. He replanted his fields with prairie grass and corn. Dick actually walked among the prairie grass and we couldn't see him - he said it would have been very easy to get lost out on the prarie. We took lots of pictures as he even furnished the sod houses with what would have been in the houses - he even had clothing.

We left Sanborn and drove a little further down the road to an area of farm land that had actual petroglyphs carved in the exposed bedrock of Sioux Quartize. We had difficulty finding the petroglyphs but one of the rangers helped us.

We are in the southern part of Minnesota and will be working our way north in the next few days. I can't believe how beautiful each state is and how much we have been able to see. Minnesota is raising alot of corn and soybeans and a few of the farmers have added the big windmills - it looks a little strange on out on the prairie.