Little House on the Prairie

We recently reached a milestone of one year since arriving in Oklahoma. The heat wave broke last year when we arrived and, lo and behold, it broke at the same time this year. How wonderful to awake to pleasant temperatures and a steady breeze. I had been wanting to visit the Little House on the Prairie Museum southwest of Independence, KS for a time now and this seemed like the perfect day for an excursion.

In 1869, Charles Ingalls and his family left the Big Woods of Wisconsin in search of the "perfect place" to settle on land that had been Indian territory. They settled on the open prairie about 14 miles south of Independence, KS. As I read Laura Ingalls Wilder's writings about their journey to the prairie, her descriptions of the landscape, the openness of the prairie, the wide open skies, the colors of the sunsets are things that I've tried to describe in a previous post on the views of the prairie entitled "Wonderful Scenery". Laura has written:

Kansas was an endless flat land covered with tall grass blowing in the wind. 
Day after day they traveled in Kansas, and saw nothing 
but the rippling grass and the enormous sky. 

When the sun went down . . . the edge of the sky was pink. 
Then slowly, the land became black. The wind made a lonely sound in the grass. 
The camp fire was small and lost in so much space. But large stars hung from 
the sky, glittering so near that Laura felt she could almost touch them. 

Laura . . .liked this place, too. She liked the enormous sky and the winds, 
and the land that you couldn't see to the end of. Everything was so fresh 
and clean and big and splendid.  

In 1963 research began to determine the location of the Little House on the Prairie. Around 1969-1970, Margaret Clements determined that the Little House site is located on what was known as the Horton Farm which was then owned by Brigadier General William A. Kurtis and his wife Wilma Horton Kurtis. It was designated as a historic site in 1970 and plans were developed to build a replica cabin to show visitors how the Ingalls family lived on the prairie. The museum was opened in 1977 and, since then, other buildings were brought to the site including a historic one room school house and a historic post office. 

Replica one room cabin

Entry door to cabin

Interior view with rough hewn log chair

Fireplace

Implements for daily life on the prairie

Simple bed

View of the garden area and the land beyond to the north

The Ingalls family endured harsh weather while living in the one-room cabin and dealt with wolves and the fear of Indian attacks. Unfortunately, the Ingalls time in Kansas was short lived as the land that they settled on was not yet legally open to homesteaders and was still considered Indian territory. Charles Ingalls decided to leave the area rather than wait for soldiers to come to remove them. The Ingalls left Kansas in 1871 and settled in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. 

While it is clear that the Ingalls lived far from others and that buildings such as the schoolhouse and post office would not have been located nearby, the availability of these historic structures for inclusion in the museum site provide additional insight into these facets of life during the time that the Ingalls lived in Kansas. 

Sunnyside School

Sunnyside School, circa 1872-1947

Inside Sunnyside School

The medicine man's room at the rear of the school house  -  the Ingalls family had become ill with "fever 'n' ague" later thought to be malaria. A neighbor cared for them while they were sick. These medicines are typical of what a doctor would have had available during that time. 

Wayside Post Office

Wayside Post Office

Behind the Post Office boxes

Customer counter and Post Office boxes

Museum Store

Old farmhouse used as museum store

View of museum buildings including schoolhouse,
post office, cabin, store and a barn beyond

The Little House on the Prairie Museum open April 1-October 31, Monday-Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. To get there, follow Highway 75, south from Independence, KS or north from Bartlesville, OK and follow the brown and white historic site signs. The museum is located on County Road 3000, at the intersection of 2500 Road. 2500 Road is a gravel road, so I would recommend taking 2700 Road, a paved road, to CR 3000. There is no fee for admission but donations are gladly accepted and appreciated. 

Dung Beetles

It must be the month for observing insects around the farm. Recently on a walk to the mailbox, I happened upon some dung beetles busy at work . . . O.K. maybe it's not the nicest subject to blog about but I found these beetles fascinating just the same.

I discovered that dung beetles are quite the workers. Makes me wonder who works harder . . . . dung beetles or ants? This group of beetles busily divided a mound of dung into round balls and quickly moved their find across the gravel driveway and into the neighboring pasture. Using their front legs to walk or push along the ground, they use their middle and rear legs to maneuver the ball of dung all while moving backwards. I walked past the mound an hour or so later and it was gone. 

I learned that dung beetles play an important role in pasture management. The beetles tunnel into the ground and carry the balls of dung down into the tunnel. Once there, they lay an egg into each ball. When the larva hatches, it feeds on the dung through its pupal stage and, as an adult it emerges to the surface and the cycle starts again. According to the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, dung beetles are beneficial to the pasture environment including the following:

• They improve pasture yields by adding organic matter and nutrients into the soil.
• By using and consuming the dung, they reduce insect populations that breed on the dung.
• They help to reduce animal diseases by removing the dung from the pasture.  
• Cattle will not graze near dung; thus, removal of it increases pasture grazing area. 

Who would have known?