Dugout site on Plum Creek - Walnut Grove, Minnesota

The Ingalls family lived in Walnut Grove two different times. They first arrived here in 1873 after leaving Pepin, Wisconsin for the last time. They stayed in Walnut Grove until 1876, fighting grasshopper plagues which devoured every green thing for miles around, including the wheat crops. After two years of fighing the grasshoppers, Charles decided that they would backtrack to Iowa and they would help run the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak.

When Burr Oak did not work out, they arrived in Walnut Grove again in 1878. The Ingalls only stayed in Walnut Grove about a year the second time. Hard times had befallen them once again. Laura's sister Mary had suffered a series of strokes from a bout with what was referred to in the books as scarlet fever.  Some believe that the illness was actually meningitis. Whatever the ailment was, the after effects slowly took away Mary's vision until she was completely blind.

After about a year, the Ingalls family left Walnut Grove for good around 1879. The railroad was expanding their lines westward through Dakota Territory and they offered Charles a job as timekeeper and storekeeper.

Laura used Walnut Grove as a setting in two of her books. "On the Banks of Plum Creek®" was based on their first stay in Walnut Grove and covers up to the move to Burr Oak, Iowa.  "By the Shores of Silver Lake®" begins after the Ingalls family returns from Burr Oak, just prior to their move to Dakota Territory.

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