laura ingalls wilder museum

If you're an LHOP fan, of course this is a must-see. The museum is spread out over several buildings, with a lot of historical-museum things to see as well as quite a few nice LIW artifacts (her quilt!) and memorabilia from the show. Don't miss the Dugout on Plum Creek a few miles up the road. Very cool.Accessibility: I think most of the buildings has ramps, although several places were very narrow. We ended up leaving my son's walker outside a few places to make it easier.PS - there's basically nowhere in western MN to buy fresh vegetables, but there's a small asian market in Walnut Grove, of all places, that had the freshest, most delicious greens we had seen in weeks while driving across the country. Check it out!!

Neat place to visit for LIW fans. Most of the stuff you could see at any county historical society museum but there was a nice collection of stuff from the show.

You probably need to be a Laura fan to really appreciate the museum. Very charming old style museum with small written notes. Fantastic museum shop. Walnut Grove is not that interesting some of the surrounding towns are nicer. Recommend to see The Sod House nearby as well.

Walnut Grove was the third Laura Ingalls Wilder homesite my 8-year-old daughter and I visited while on a LIW homesite tour in July. We were in town Friday and Saturday nights, the first weekend of this year’s pageant. More than any of the homesite towns I’ve visited, the Walnut Grove community seems to embrace their place in Laura history, and enjoy and appreciate Laura fans. The museum is wonderful! Saturday morning, friendly museum workers greeted us in the gift store, where we bought museum tickets. The tour is self-guided. They give you a pamphlet that tells you about each of the several buildings. Items in all of the buildings were very well marked with signs, but read the pamphlet to be sure not to miss seeing anything. The first building features information about the Little House books, and a few actual items that Laura owned when she was an adult. In the same building, there is a large room devoted to the TV show. Since the TV show was set in Walnut Grove, several of the actors from the show have visited there through the years, and they have photos from those visits. Pieces of show memorabilia are in one room, plus several log cabin doll houses. The actual mantel from the TV show is there as well. So cool! Other buildings show items from Laura’s era. There are kids activities, a replica dugout, a schoolhouse, a house that is similar in size to Laura’s “Wonderful House,” there’s an old-timey grocery store that my daughter loved playing in, plus an old-time post office, a jail. In the center of the buildings is a beautiful garden. The museum gift shop is spectacular. You’ll find everything Laura-related you could want, and some items you likely hadn't thought of (a Laura bobblehead comes to mind). The pageant, which takes place in the evenings three weekends in July, was excellent. On Friday night we had advance-purchase front row yellow section tickets. My daughter liked the pageant so much that we went to see it on Saturday night also. The second night we purchased general admission tickets and watched while sitting on our blanket on the side of the hill. I actually liked seeing it better from far away, where we could see the entire stage. We also enjoyed the festival Saturday, and my daughter loved competing in the Laura look-a-like contest. Both the festival and the contest take place for three Saturdays every July. In addition to the museum, be sure to visit the actual Ingalls homesite just north of town. Overall, Walnut Grove was our favorite of the five homesites we’ve visited. We look forward to visiting again.

Sure - it's sort of in the middle of nowhere.Sure - the town doesn't have a grocery store or a standard hotel.But, ya'll, it has so much more to offer than groceries and lodging!If you love Laura Ingalls Wilder, you will love this town.The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum is great for kids - a wonderful small re-created town and a great "Pioneer Experience" room where kids can dress like Laura and hang laundry on the line like Laura and attempt to read Braille like her sister Mary did.The town hosts a charming outdoor pageant six nights on July weekends. You won't want to miss the outdoor drama.Nearby there is Plum Creek of the same claim to fame and the town also hosts annual Laura days with Laura crafts and a darling Laura Look Alike contest.Grab your prairie dress and your bonnet and let your kids watch classic literature and true history come to life right before their eyes.

We visited during the cast reunion time, so there were LOTS of people there. This is a very nice museum, with a room dedicated to the TV series Little House on the Prairie. Wonderful gift shop, with lots of variety of books, etc.

I visited the museum while in town for the 40th anniversary of the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series Reunion. There is a good amount of information on the Ingalls and Wilder families, the books and the series. A great stop for Little House fans - books and TV alike. The town was hopping because of all of the fans in town for the cast reunion, so it would have been great if the museum had been a bit more prepared. There seemed to be a lot of sales clerks behind the register at the gift shop and none of them seemed to remember their customer service skills (and we were there very early in the morning on the first day in). They might want to bring in more staff for large events.

We came for the Reunion Weekend and really enjoyed our trip and the museum. Lots of interesting things to look at, especially for a small town exhibit. Definitely worth a stop!

Some original Ingalls items and many of Garth Williams' original illustrations. Many photos from the TV series. Other interesting items that could be viewed as more of the era or examples of things from the books. Very good gift shop,

We took our grandchildren ages 8 and 11 to Walnut Grove to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and also attend the Fragments of A Dream Pageant, put on by the community for three weekends in July every year. This is a small town and they provide meals for pageant attenders by old fashioned community dinners every night of the pageant. The museum gave them a taste of pioneer life including a reproduction of a sod house, little school house, two room prairie house and (one the kiddos enjoyed) the old jail cells. There are other buildings on the property, but those were the best ones. We also "splurged" for the $4 bus tour of the actual Wilder sites. It was rather low key, but included a chance to wade in Plum Creek just near the site of the actual dugout that the Ingalls family lived in when they came to Walnut Grove. If you are looking for small town charm, and leave your "city" expectations at home, taking this trip is worthwhile. The pageant was worth the drive, but I would recommend the whole experience.

my wife has wanted to see this for years, a little disappointed as it is located right in town, most items/buildings are not from the show. If you have kids they might like to see it if they have watched the show. Items located inside the buildings are old era items, neat to see, 8 buildings to walk thru, you can take photos, some people from the show go once a year to talk about the show (end of July I think). Small gift shop with some older items to purchase.

If you like looking at objects from the pioneers time period and you love the Laura Ingalls books you will enjoy this site.The exhibit does not have many of Laura's actual objects but it does have many objects that were from that time period and were described in the books. There is a reconstruction of a dugout and a the house that is similar to the house that pa built. The visual representation was really helpful.There are also activities for children like an arts and craft station, a school house, and a building filled with dress up clothing and hands on experiences, like pretending to work in a pioneer shop or post office. Don't forget to travel down the road to the actual site of the homestead!

Fantastic museum for Little House fans. There was lots of things activities and things for kids to touch. Full of information as well.

We visited Walnut Grove in the middle of the hot summer. The trip was enjoyable and just one of many Laura Ingalls stops on our 22 day Road Trip across the country. The museum is a MUST SEE for all Little House fans. They have many items from the time period that Laura Ingalls lived (that were not directly involved in her life) but they also have things that Laura owned and used as well as memorabilia from the TV show and old family photos. They even have the original fireplace mantle from the Little House on the Prairie TV show.In the gift shop you can purchase pillows and bags that are hand made by Miss Beadle (Charlotte Stewart), T shirts, books and much more.

Loved seeing everything "for real"!Nothing to dislike...If you read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books - and loved them - this is for you