DeSmet

So then we drove into town. I don't know why but this town confused me. I could never figure out which direction to turn or where I was. But we did manage to find the Little house Memorial Society. Don't know why they are situated where they are. They are in an old house with the lot next door consisting of the Surveyors home (removed from its original location a mile east), the replicated Brewster school in which Laura had originally taught school at age 15, and the original DeSmet School where Laura and Carrie had attended. We had a tour of them all. The Surveyors house was fantastic, exactly as Laura described it. So amazing. The school was in the process of being returned to the original condition, but was still a work in progress.

Then after the tour there we drove in a convoy across town to the home Pa had built in town after Laura was married and where he, Ma, and Mary had lived the rest of their lives. Carrie and Grace had lived there until they were married. It was a simple and yet sturdy home. Better built I thought than the one Almanzo had built in Missouri. But maybe just because it was built more cohesively instead of the organic kind of home Rocky Ridge is.

We went to the cemetery to pay our respects and saw again the grandmother and her three cute little grandchildren who we seemed to follow everywhere. I left the other citron candle at Pa's headstone. It felt fitting, though it did not affect me as Mansfield had.

We took a long drive out to the twin lakes, Lake Henry and Thompson. Thompson is HUGE, they were waterskiing on it and summer homes sprinkled its edges. This place in South Dakota is full of surprises, so different from what I envisioned. There is a stillness here even now, though not like Laura would have experienced. On the north side of town is the site of the homestead Almanzo had claimed. Here we found a sign to commemorate the birthplace of Rose Wilder Lane. Rose was an intriguing woman. She apparently requested the "First four years" to be published even though it is not where Laura ended her tale (Laura had written a letter to a DeSmet friend {and found in the Memorial Society museum} saying with the publication of Those Happy Golden Years her books were complete. She also said something to the effect: the facts are correct with fiction included to provide interest and improve the story). I'm sure Rose wanted her birth to be included in the story as it rightly should be.

We were almost finished with the Laura story. But the last two pieces could not be included. We were much too late today to see inside the South Dakota capitol for the exhibit about the Ingalls. Though we did reach Pierre before sunset and enjoyed the peaceful capitol grounds. (The other piece was the exhibit about Carrie in Keystone.) The plan had been to hope for a campspot in the Badlands, but instead we stopped in Kadoka at a hotel. I wanted to see the Badlands in the daylight, and it was late and I was too tired to make up camp anywhere.