Visit Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Minnesota: Walnut Grove & More

If you grew up reading the Little House books or watching the classic 1970 and 80s TV show, you already know that Minnesota holds an important piece of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s history.

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With Netflix releasing its highly anticipated, brand-new Little House on the Prairie adaptation series on July 9th, there’s no better time to plan a summer road trip to walk in Laura’s footsteps. Here’s your guide to exploring Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Minnesota connections, where to visit and what we know about the new show!

Laura’s Minnesota Connection: The Plum Creek Years

In 1874, the Ingalls family packed up their covered wagon and moved to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. They settled right along the banks of Plum Creek. This era and location inspired one of Laura’s most famous books, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

Their time here brought plenty of hardships, like a devastating grasshopper plague that destroyed the family’s crops. (You can read about the grasshopper plagues on the Minnesota Historical Society website.) Despite the hardships, it’s also where Laura went to school, made lifelong friends, and fell in love with the rolling Minnesota prairie.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Places to Visit in Minnesota

If you want to experience the location for yourself, Walnut Grove (located in southwestern Minnesota) is your destination to get a feel for what the Ingalls time in Minnesota may have been like.

1. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

Located right in downtown Walnut Grove, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum is an incredible deal for families. The campus features eight historic buildings to explore at your own pace, including an 1898 railway depot, a little red schoolhouse, an early settler home, and an onion-domed house. You’ll also see memorabilia from visits by the 1970s TV show cast!

• Admission: $12 for adults (ages 13 and over), $5 for kids (ages 5–12), and free for kids 4 and under.
• Thrifty Tip: Your admission ticket is good for the entire day, meaning you can leave for lunch and come right back.

2. The Original Dugout Homesite on Plum Creek

Just 1.5 miles north of the museum on County Road 5, you can drive out to the actual land where the Ingalls family lived. While the original sod dugout roof caved in long ago, a visible depression remains on the bank where it sat. You can walk along the creek, see the prairie grasses, and unpack a picnic. We visited this many years ago and while you can no longer see their home it’s a cool feeling knowing you are likely walking in the exact footsteps of the Ingalls family.

• Admission: A requested $10 per car (paid via an honor-system box at the entry driveway).

3. 1880’s Sodhouse on the Prairie

If you would like to visit a standing home from the 1880s that is similar to what the Ingalls would have lived in, visit the Sod House on the Prairie in nearby Sanborn, about 18 miles east of Walnut Grove. We enjoyed our visit not only being able to go inside the sod house but also an outhouse, small log cabin, dugout and shed with sod cutter. Plus you can walk through acres of restored tallgrass prairie.

• Admission: $5 per person. Ages 6 and under are free. (Cash only.)

4. Visit THE Plum Creek at Plum Creek Park

Just a few minutes from Walnut Grove, you can explore Plum Creek Park. The exact same Plum Creek that Laura wrote about runs right through this 215-acre park! There’s a scenic hiking trail right along the creek banks, plus a trail around Lake Laura, a spring-fed swimming lake created in the late 1970s that stays remarkably fresh and clean all summer.

• Admission: Free to visit for the day. (They also offer camping, camper cabins, a 9-hole disc golf course, and a playground if you want to turn your trip into an overnight stay.)

5. The Wilder Pageant and Village Fair

If you plan your visit for July, you can catch the famous Wilder Pageant, an outdoor live drama depicting the family’s history in Walnut Grove. It runs on consecutive weekends in July and features incredible live special effects (including a simulated prairie fire).

• Admission: General Admission is $20 with reserved seating $25 and VIP reserved $30. Children 5 and under are free.

6. Spring Valley Methodist Church Museum

If you’re a diehard Laura Ingalls Wilder fans who love her book Farmer Boy should plan a visit to Spring Valley, Minnesota. Laura’s husband, Almanzo Wilder, spent his youth on a farm in this area. You can explore the Spring Valley Methodist Church , which has direct historical ties to the Wilder family and now features a two-story museum packed with unique artifacts and information related to the Wildersand local history.

• Admission: Adults $10. Children 5-16 $4. Children 5 and under are free.

The Hollywood Magic: The 1970s TV Show Connection

For millions of fans, the words “Walnut Grove” instantly bring to mind the legendary Little House on the Prairie NBC television series starring Michael Landon as Pa and Melissa Gilbert as Laura, which ran from 1974 to 1983.

While the entire TV series was famously set right here in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, almost none of it was actually filmed here!

Instead, Hollywood used a bit of landscape trickery. The sweeping green fields and the town itself were built at the Big Sky Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, California. If you ever noticed that the “Minnesota” terrain in the show looked a little too mountainous, now you know why! I remember even as a little kid feeling a bit tricked seeing mountains on the screen while watching. Even then I knew that big mountains were NOT a Minnesota thing!

Even though the show was filmed out west, the real Walnut Grove embraces its television history. When you visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum today, you can see real memorabilia from the show’s cast, network artifacts, and behind-the-scenes items that bridge the gap between Minnesota history and Hollywood magic.

(Fun fact: The original TV set didn’t survive for tourists. In the 1984 TV movie finale, the legend about that, often shared by former cast members, is that Michael Landon chose to literally blow up the town of Walnut Grove with real TNT so the sets could never be used by other productions!)

What to Know About the New Netflix Series

The classic stories of the beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder are getting a massive, cinematic revival. Netflix officially drops Season 1 of its reimagined Little House on the Prairie series on July 9, 2026.

Developed by showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys, The Vampire Diaries), this high-budget historical drama promises to balance the heartwarming family optimism we love with a historically accurate, realistic look at the harsh realities of 19th-century frontier survival.

What to expect: Season 1 is heavily based on the Little House on the Prairie novel. It stars Alice Halsey as Laura and Luke Bracey as Pa Ingalls with Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline and Skywalker Hughes as Mary.

Blending a heartwarming family drama with a gripping frontier survival story, this fresh adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic books offers a multi-layered look at the struggles and triumphs of early prairie life. Just like in the original novels, Laura serves as our guide, opening a window into this community with a story rooted in resilience, courage, and optimism.

The show is also highly anticipated for exploring the parallel stories of Indigenous communities, specifically focusing on the tensions and relationships between frontier settlers and the Osage Nation. We’ll be introduce to a new Osage family: the father, Mitchell (Meegwun Fairbrother); the mother, White Sun (Alyssa Wapanatâhk); and their daughter, Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts), a friend of Laura.

The series has already been renewed for Season 2 ahead of its premiere (set to feature the rivalry between Nellie Oleson and Laura), so expect a lot of prairie fever in this summer’s pop culture! We might start seeing a lot of Laura-inspired style with the prairie dresses, calicos and gingham prints and puffy sleeves. I can’t be the only one who remembers the Gunne Sax dresses the last time they came around!