Pipestone National Monument in southwest Minnesota afforded us another opportunity to enjoy the simple beauty of the prairie. Pipestone is a material I have seen throughout my life in the trading business. The Zunis use it for carving fetishes and it is considered sacred by tribes across the country.

Upon entering the visitors center, a table with pipestone, blades and saws attracted Grange’s attention and he proceeded to work his way through a stone. Moving further back into the center, we came across three stall where artists saw and file their creations. Pamela had been working there for a year. Her mother had occupied that same stall for the previous thirty years until retiring and opening a spot for her daughter. She went on the say that the stall next to hers belonged to her brother and the third was occupied by her cousin. They were all Dakota.

It was time to hit the trail. We passed Lake Hiawatha; yes, THAT Lake Hiawatha made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The prairie is vast and wide and this location was considered magical with the presence of the pipestone, a waterfall and specially shaped rocks.

Proceeding along, we came to the Old Man in the Rock and Leaping Rock. It is believed that the Old Man provides wisdom and counsel. A warrior tested his bravery by leaping across the chasm at Leaping Rock. Further down the trail, a lovely little waterfall is a surprise in this flat land; a true miracle to the people and a place worthy of sacred thought.

Toward the end of the hike, the kids were able to go down into an old quarry. The smooth, cool rock was a welcome respite after a long, hot hike. I think I could have left Grange there for a nap.

It was time to push north and west into South Dakota with our first stop being one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder homesteads. A kind family had purchased the property and had not only renovated the buildings of this homestead but recreated various other types of homes in which the Ingalls had lived. Kira had started reading the Little House series. De Smet was the location of this special monument and the setting for her books, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years.

I was pleased upon entering how much the staff worked to engage the kids in various activities. We arrived later in the day and pretty much had the place to ourselves. The woman in the main visitor center recommended we head down for the barn since they were preparing the last wagon ride of the day.

We headed down the hill, a wonderful prairie slope inviting the kids to run. I reminded them to slow down as they approached the horses.

The large wagon was pulled by a pair of Percherons. The young driver allowed the children to drive the team, an experience of which both kids though highly. Everything they did at the homestead allowed Kira and Grange the opportunity to experience first hand some of the types of activities in which Laura and her family were engaged.

The wagon ride took us to an old schoolhouse, not the one in which Laura taught, but one very similar. The woman acting as teacher had Kira put on a sunbonnet and apron. Kira was initially mortified especially when I started to click away with the camera. Kira soon found by wearing the outfit, she had a truer sense of how their clothes felt. The teacher was excellent at drawing the kids into various activities such as reading, math calculations and spelling.

After leaving the school, we headed back to the barn. The young man driving the wagon felt we should head ot the machine shop where a young woman invited Kira and Grange to make rope. Kira also made a corn husk doll while Grange used the device with removes kernels of corn from the cob. She asked us if we had read The Long Winter and explained the unusual circumstances where supply trains were unable to reach the town for seven months. The Ingalls knew a trick whereby you twist hay very tightly into logs and this was their major source of fuel for the larger part of that devastating winter. When they were reduced to using hay logs, Laura, Pa and later Ma and Mary would spend a greater part of the day twisting enough logs for that day.

A few weeks later when the kids and I had read the book, we had a great appreciation for what they had to do to survive that winter. The Ingalls family had homesteaded outside of De Smet, but chose to spend the winter in town with the few other families who lived in the community.

We were visiting this area during the best of times. The harvest was a coming in, the grasses were high and the weather was lovely. It was difficult to picture that at times the snow drifted so deeply that Pa could created a tunnel to complete his chores with the animals in the stable while Laura went upstairs and saw horses’ hooves as they walked on the packed snow past the second story window! With three months of bad weather left to go, the Ingalls were reduced to eating brown wheat bread and the last of their potatoes. It made us appreciate the tremendous difficulties so many thousands of people endured in their search for a better life.