Laura's House

Another item on my bucket list was to visit the Rocky Ridge Farm & Museum in Mansfield, Missouri - aka  Laura Ingalls Wilder's house.  Well, houses.  It was a real treat for me, since I have enjoyed reading everything she wrote and everything I've found written about her. Still there were pictures I'd never seen, items I'd read about and didn't expect to see, and a few bits of Laura trivia I'd never heard.

So in short - for a fan of Laura, this place is gluttony.  For everyone else, it's an old house.

This is the farm house that Laura and Almanzo built - they started off with a 1 room shack and expanded it and expanded it for years.  The inside had a rambly quality that built onto houses tend to have!  Laura wrote the Little House books here and she died here.  If you picture her as a little girl on the prairie, she lived most of her life in this house.

Later in their life, Laura and Almanzo's daughter Rose had this home built for them.  It was built from a plan purchased from the Sears catalog!  The original plan did not include the rock exterior, that was a personal touch.  It was built in the 1920s, but is adorably modern. 

I think this was our last cemetery visit of the trip.  Laura and Almanzo are buried next to their daughter Rose.