Laura's family lived in the Surveyor's House in By the Shores of Silver Lake - it's the oldest building in De Smet
Steve and the kids walk in front of the Ingalls store site, where they survived The Long Winter (now the red brick building)
At the Loftus store Pa finally bought the wheat that kept the family alive that winter
The Ingalls family's burial plot (from left to right): Carrie, Mary, the infant son of Laura and Almanzo, Ma, and Pa
At the Ingalls' homestead
The size and location of the Ingalls' claim shanty (after Pa had built the final additions to it)
Attending an 1880's school session
Remembering De Smet, South Dakota - the Little Town on the Prairie:
"But there was something else here that was not anywhere else. It was an enormous stillness that made you feel still. And when you were still, you could feel great stillness coming closer."
"Laura opened the door and peeped in. This house (The Surveyor's House) had board floors; not as comfortable to bare feet as the earth floor of the shanty, but not so much work to keep clean."
~ By the Shores of Silver Lake
"Pa's store building was one of the best in town. It stood by itself on the east side of Main Street. Its false front was tall and square-cornered, with one upstairs window in it. Downstairs there were two windows with the front door between them."
"Now, girls!" Ma said. "A storm outdoors is no reason for gloom in the house."
“If only I had some grease I could fix some kind of a light," Ma considered. "We didn't lack for light when I was a girl before this newfangled kerosene was ever heard of."
"That's so," said Pa. "These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good things to have, but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.”
“It can't beat us!" Pa said.
"Can't it, Pa?" Laura asked stupidly.
"No," said Pa. "It's got to quit sometime and we don't. It can't lick us. We won't give up."
Then Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.” ~ The Long Winter
