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A Return to Ingalls Homestead and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in De Smet, SD

April 21, 2024 by kokotg Leave a Comment

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travel dates: July 2022

Our first visit to the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, SD in 2016 ranks right up there with our very best travel memories. The kids spent their time riding bikes across the prairie, running from barn to barn to cuddle with kittens, and just generally having the time of their lives.

kids riding bikes at sunset at Ingalls homestead

You can read about that trip here, or you can listen to me describe it as “magical” on the RV Atlas podcast here.

We were excited to make another stop there as we were making our way home from Glacier National Park in summer of 2022, particularly since our dates this time coincided with the town’s annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant.

Laura ingalls wilder pageant in de smet, sd

So the question with return visits to places you’ve loved is always “will it be as good the second time?” And, in this case…well, not really. It was still a great stop, but it didn’t really recapture the magic of our first visit. Which is fine. I think the alignment with the pageant plus just the later in the summer timing was part of it: there were fewer baby animals than when we were there in June the first time around. And whereas on our first stay the kids pretty much had the place (and the kittens) to themselves after closing time, this time there was a school group staying there and the kitten barn was always pretty crowded. Also I don’t remember the dirt road leading to the homestead being as washboard-y last time we were there. After Spiral Jetty, we were still a little washboard dirt road averse and did not enjoy that part.

But! It was still really fun, and I still highly recommend a stay here if you find yourself anywhere in the vicinity! Here’s a relatively brief recap of our time here, since I talked about everything pretty extensively in my 2016 post. To sum up: this is the actual land where the Ingalls family had a homestead. You can RV camp right here, in one of 4 W/E sites, or you can stay in a covered wagon or bunkhouse, or you can pitch a tent on the prairie. There are tons of activities here in season: a covered wagon ride out to the schoolhouse, barns with animals, a re-creation of the Ingalls’ home, pony rides, etc. etc. In the nearby town, there are Little House related tours available–we did this on our first visit and definitely recommend it.

There are only four RV sites, and all of them stayed full this time around. We got to chat with some fun neighbors and see some cool RVs, though. RV sites are close together, but there’s plenty of room behind them to spread out more:

RV sites at Ingalls homestead

RV sites are $40/night, and you’ll also need to pay for admission to the Homestead, which is $20/person in summer, includes all activities, and is good for the length of your visit.

We decided to stay on site and not go into town on this visit, so we’d have plenty of time to do all the activities offered and also not drive on the washboard road again (mostly kidding; it’s not that long of a drive). There’s a ton of stuff to do, particularly for kids.

washing clothes at Ingalls homestead grinding wheat at Ingalls homestead pony rides at Ingalls homestead

The covered wagon ride takes you out to an old schoolhouse, where a teacher meets you for a lesson:

Abe driving a wagon at Ingalls homestead lesson at old schoolhouse

It’s also a nice place to walk around and take pictures:

walking into flint's garage dallies and White House Gus walking Fergus

But the animals are always the main attraction, at least for my kids. As mentioned, baby animals were a little sparser this time than last time, but we did spend a lot of time with this charming little calf:

calf at ingalls homestead

And this litter of kittens:

Gus holding a kitten Abe holding a kitten visiting kittens at Ingalls homestead

kitten sleeping on its back

Last time we were there there were TWO litters of kittens, one of them watched over by their mother, whose name was Mia. We enquired after Mia this time around and were told that, sadly, she is no longer around. Not surprising since it had been five years, but we were still bummed about it.

The town of De Smet hosts a Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant most weekends in July, an outdoor performance that takes place right next door to the Homestead. So…it was a fun evening, but I do think it suffered in comparison to our other outdoor theater extravaganza of the summer: the Medora Musical. They do not import performers from all over the country for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant; it’s very much a local production, so expect a community theater type feel.

actors in Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in De Smet

It doesn’t sell out, but getting there early will give you the most/best seating options:

seating at Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant

They have some activities and food available before the pageant starts. We waited in a very long line for a very bumpy wagon ride, which, in retrospect, was not really necessary and not nearly as good as the wagon ride offered at the Ingalls Homestead. The website claimed they would have kids’ games on this night, too, but we couldn’t find any. There was live music before the main show started as well.

bumpy wagon ride

live music before pageant

We walked over from the Ingalls Homestead, which on paper looked like a great idea…but in actuality it wasn’t the most pleasant walk and we had to go the long way around to where the entrance was instead of taking a more direct route. It didn’t seem like anyone else was walking. So it can be done, but it’s probably more pleasant to drive instead.

Thus ended our highly anticipated return visit! And thus nearly ended our entire trip. I’ll probably do just one more post wrapping things up (we still had several more days/campgrounds to go, but it was mostly just about making progress toward home (although we fit in a few more fun things).

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Filed Under: 2022 Mountains, south dakota, Uncategorized

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