The True Story Behind Little House On The Prairie Explained

Some fans may not realize that Little House on the Prairie is based on the true story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life, but there are some things that didn't make it into the series. Little House on the Prairie premiered in 1974 and lasted for nine celebrated seasons, with three movies following soon after. The show follows the Ingalls family, who live on a farm on Plum Creek which is near the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Set between the 1870s and 1890s, the Ingalls family grows and learns on the frontier, encountering an array of characters along the way.

While the show is set in an idyllic Walnut Creek, Little House on the Prairie frequently has dark stories, with many episodes concerned with everything from abuse to addiction to tragic deaths. Everyone on Little House on the Prairie suffers some misfortune at one time or another, and it's this reality that keeps the show grounded and kept viewers invested for so long. There were plenty of sad moments in Little House on the Prairie and plenty of happy ones, much like in real life, which makes sense considering the series is based on Wilder's life.

Little House On The Prairie Is Based On Laura Ingalls Wilder's Life

Wilder Published Her Books With The Help Of Her Daughter, Rose Wilder Lane

Little House on the Prairie is based on the series of books of the same name by American author Laura Ingalls Wilder, who is also the namesake of the main character in the show. The books are based on Wilder's childhood and adulthood in the American Midwest between 1872 and 1894. Eight books were published within her lifetime in the 1930s and 1940s by Harper & Brothers. The draft for the ninth novel was published posthumously in 1971 and is generally roped in with the rest of the series.

There is also a tenth book, not commonly placed alongside the Little House on the Prairie books, the non-fiction On the Way Home, which includes excerpts from Wilder's diary which she wrote in the years after 1894. The book also includes commentary from Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. The title Little House on the Prairie is taken from the third book in the series, though the phrase does appear in earlier titles. Ingalls and her family did indeed move to Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and lived on a farm near Plum Creek, like the family in the stories (via Hoover).

Laura Ingall Wilder's Little House Books
Title	Year
Little House in the Big Woods	1932
Farmer Boy	1933
Little House on the Prairie	1935
On the Banks of Plum Creek	1937
By the Shores of Silver Lake	1939
The Long Winter	1940
Little Town on the Prairie	1941
These Happy Golden Years	1943
The First Four Years	1971

Much of the story is autobiographical, with Wilder's real life meshing seamlessly with that of the characters in the books. For the wide cast of characters in the Little House on the Prairie books, Wilder often created composite characters based on people she had known growing up. It's thanks to her daughter, Rose, that the books ever saw the light of day (via BondAndGrace). Rose was a writer and a journalist and encouraged her 65-year-old mother to turn her first-person autobiographical memoirs into a third-person story aimed at children rather than adults.

What Little House On The Prairie Leaves Out From The Real Story

Wilder's Life Was More Harrowing Than It Seems In Her Book Series

The Ingalls family looking into the distance on Little House on the Prairie.

Wilder is very open with her history and her family, leaving in much of the heartbreak, failure, and darkness that came along with life on the American frontier, living in a poverty-stricken family. Walnut Grove may have not been filmed at the real location, but the location does exist, and the Wilder family did indeed live there. However, there are a few things that Wilder saw fit to leave out, including the more harrowing details of her childhood from the children's series, but her autobiography reveals the tragic moments of her early life.

Pioneer Girl, her non-fiction memoir, includes stories of a drunk man accidentally lighting himself on fire, a gruesome act of violence between a shopkeeper and his wife, and other stories of her father, which paint him in a more complex light. The Wilder family faced extreme poverty, even harsher than depicted in the show (via Grunge). After the birth of her younger sister, Grace, the Wilder family faced mounting food, home, and medical bills and her parents, Charles and Caroline, frequently argued about finances.

While Little House on the Prairie depicts Charles (Michael Landon) as a practical man, it was Caroline Wilder who was the real pragmatic one in the family.

Charles was the dreamer of the family and moved the Wilders around from new pursuit to new pursuit, never staying long enough to put down stakes and start earning a steady wage (via Grunge). While Little House on the Prairie depicts Charles (Michael Landon) as a practical man, it was Caroline Wilder who was the real pragmatic one in the family. Also left out from the novels is the death of Laura's infant brother's death. The series, however, does include this terrible story in a tragic two-part episode.

Nellie Oleson Dalton (Alison Arngrim), who serves as an antagonist in the series, also never existed. A bully and a menace, Nellie frustrated Laura at every turn. Despite the very real characterization of Nellie, she's actually a composite, a mishmash of three bullies Laura Ingalls Wilder had growing up: Nellie Owens, Genevieve Masters, and Stella Gilbert (via TracyLawsonBooks).

What Happened To Laura Ingalls Wilder

Wilder Lived A Long, Happy Life In Missouri

The Ingalls family in front of their homestead in Little House on the Prairie.

Laura Ingalls Wilder published most of her books later in life after she met and married Almanzo Wilder, with whom she had two children including Rose Wilder and an unnamed son who died 12 days after being born. After earning prosperity slowly throughout their life, Laura and Almanzo moved to Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where they had previously, and unsuccessfully, tried to build a log cabin. With their comfortable savings, they eventually built an impressive home there and had begun a successful farm.

The numerous spin-off and prequel Little House books were not written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and were instead written by various authors.

After traveling around, the Rocky Ridge Farm they returned to was much smaller than the one they had left, but they still retained some animals. By this point, Laura was known as the author behind the Little House on the Prairie books and fans frequently stopped by to meet the real "Laura". The couple lived comfortably and happily until Almanzo's passing in 1949. Laura remained at Rocky Ridge Farm, looked after by a rotating circle of neighbors and friends.

In 1956, the 89-year-old Wilder became severely ill from diabetes and cardiac issues that had gone undiagnosed. She died a few months later in 1957 at the age of 90 and was buried next to Almanzo. Their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, later joined them. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie are not just beautiful stories, they are a look into a time period in American History told from a first-hand account by a curious, brave, and adventurous young woman.