2017 Road Trip - Day 2 Council Bluffs, IA to De Smet, SD

While subjecting our kids to endless hours stuck in the car with us, we have found that Audiobooks are by far the way to keep them entertained, and for the most part, as behaved as kids will be stuck in the same seat for a few hours. For us it is way better than fighting over which movie they want to watch for the 100th time, not to mention listening to whatever they have picked out is rarely entertaining. The kids are usually captivated by the books, and we always try to pick something that we will enjoy also. For the first two days of our journey we have been listening to “By the Shores of Silver Lake” by Laura Ingalls Wilder specifically because of where we are heading – The Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, SD. As we learned through the book, the Ingalls family moves to De Smet after leaving Plum Creek (Walnut Grove) in search of their homestead (160 acres of free land). Laura is around 13 at the time, and in the book she tells of her Pa (Charles) working for the railroad that is on its way West, how they came to settle there and some of the challenges they faced in the move.

So how and why did we pick De Smet, SD as a place to go? When Julia grew up she was a huge fan of the “Little House on the Prairie” and for Christmas we got her the entire series of the TV show. Julia has been watching the series with the girls and much to her delight, they are falling as much in love with the series as she had growing up. Consequently, when we began planning this trip, I started reaching out to friends who had gone on “Griswold Road Trips” themselves, and one friend happened to mention the Homestead in South Dakota and how much fun she heard it was. Within a few hours we had our covered wagon reserved for the night. Having secured our spot, we decided to keep it as a little secret for our trip from the girls in hopes that it would be a big surprise.

As we were wrapping up the book, the kids started seeing familiar town names mentioned in the book, and we started giving more than a few subtle clues as to where we were going. By the time we made it to the Homestead the kids were bouncing out of their seats. The Homestead is  a neat place to visit. They have restored/replaced structures on the property to way they believe Charles kept it back in the late 1800s. They allow you to tour the property, learning about the structures, their uses, and they also have several staff on site telling you about growing up on a homestead. They offer some good activities for the kids like making a button toy spinner, a corn cob doll, a jump rope, and driving a covered wagon. The kids enjoyed every minute of their time on the prairie and we certainly got our money’s worth.

De Smet, SD (POP 1,320) has gone “all in” on Ingalls tourism, and it sounds like we missed the peak season of July, when they do outdoor plays series each year re-enacting one of the books. This year is expected be big for the town as they celebrate Laura’s 150th birthday. In addition, to the homestead, you can tour many of the area homes, businesses, and other sites in town Laura talks about in her books. Before heading out of town, we drove past some of the sites, and even toured the grave sites of Charles, Caroline, Carrie and Mary Ingalls.

Now off to the BADLANDS!!

Happy Trails!