A “Little House on the Prairie” site near Independence, Kan., has a reproduction of the home Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in for a brief time. Workers from the Kansas State Historical Society in 1977 discovered the actual foundation of the Ingalls family’s original cabin site and the well Pa Ingalls dug with help from a neighbor.

Local volunteers reproduced the Little House with special efforts to build the cabin according to descriptions in Wilder’s book.

Research of the 1870 census of Montgomery County, Kansas, located the “Ingles” family in the eighty-ninth residence in Rutland Township. C.P. Ingles was sited as a 34-year-old carpenter along with his wife, Caroline, and three daughters, Mary, Laura, and Carrie. This 1870 census and the Ingalls’ family Bible record that Carrie was born on this site on Aug. 3, 1870.

The family lived here only a short while, as they mistakenly settled on the Osage Indian Diminished Reserve. After hearing that they were to be moved, the family decided to leave their Kansas home. The Ingallses didn’t know it, but six months later the Osages were moved to Oklahoma and they would have been able homestead the land.

Many of the landmarks Wilder mentions in her book can still be seen on and near the site. Walnut Creek, the bluffs to the north of the home site and the mention of the Ingallses going to Independence for supplies authenticate the site.

Other Ingalls homes are located in Pepin, Wis., where Laura Ingalls Wilder Days are celebrated Sept. 10-11 Walnut Grove, Minn. (www.walnutgrove.org/museum.htm or (800) 528-7280); Burr Oak, Iowa (www.lauraingallswilder.us or (563) 735-5916) and Mansfield, Mo. (/www.lauraingallswilderhome.com or (417) 924-3626).

– Some information obtained from http://www.littlehouseonprairie.com