Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s first intent was to tell about her experiences as a pioneer child so that children of the future could have a picture of what life was like from a child’s perspective. She had no idea that her stories would serve to inspire children of so many cultures in so many other countries.
Laura’s family experiences mirror those of countless other pioneer families at a child’s level. They have application today in a child’s desire for stability at a home, whether it be a covered wagon home on wheels or a tiny cabin resisting the prairie winds. The wholesome values in Laura’s experiences are the way things should be. In my opinion, ‘the way things should be’ are a reinforcement for children in whose homes ‘this is the way things are’ and a vision for children whose homes are struggling to offer wholesome values.
When you can visit Rocky Ridge Farm and the other museums centered around the Ingalls and Wilder families across the Midwest in places where they worked or lived, you are honoring the countless families who helped settle the Midwest and develop the breadbasket of the world are honored when people work hard in their communities as the Wilder Home Association has done at Rocky Ridge Farm.
Rocky Ridge Farm has a vision of offering an expanded educational and cultural experience around this farm where Laura and Almanzo and Rose worked many long days without intention of becoming American icons, but with the intention of taking care of business.
Some things have begun which add interest and beauty. I’ve visited Rocky Ridge Farm many times over the past 10 years and have watched Laura’s garden be developed and the chicken coop built. (that is one fine chicken coop). The apple trees are growing and beginning to serve up apples.
The stage of the vision has opened to a shovel-ready project for a new museum structure at the Rocky Ridge Farm location of Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes and Museum. I’ve probably written this before and have not the slightest doubt that I will say it again, but without this location where Laura worked in a garden, picked apples, gathered eggs and probably plucked chickens, before she took a couple hours and wrote the Little House stories which made her family known around the world, the other delightful facilities across the Midwest would have no purpose.
Every fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her stories, from child to parent to teacher or to librarian, has some connection to Rocky Ridge Farm. Each of us can have a greater connection with a gift. Your gift Today, keeps Yesterday for Tomorrow. Your gift today keeps the dream and history of our great country active and available for other dreamers around the world.
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