Explore Your Pioneering Knowledge With Our ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Quiz

Ingalls Wilder’s daughter Rose — who became a well-known writer herself — encouraged her mom to share stories about growing up on the prairie. Ingalls Wilder was 63 when she began writing her first book, Little House in the Big Woods. She kept on writing, with her eighth autobiographical book, Those Happy Golden Years, published when she was 76.

The show is mainly set in Minnesota. In real life, the Ingalls family moved several times and also lived in South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Iowa.

Gilbert played the role of Laura, while Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary, Laura’s older sister. The role of Carrie was shared by the twins Rachel Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush, with the girls listed together as Lindsay Sidney Greenbush in the opening credits. Lindsay Greenbush first met her husband briefly on the set when he was 14 and she was 7. They lost touch, met up again 30 years later in 2007, and got married in 2014.

Michael Landon, already a well-known actor and a star of the TV series Bonanza, played Charles Ingalls, who was affectionately called “Pa.” For the role, he received a 1979 Golden Globe nomination for best performance by an actor in a drama television series. Off screen, Landon was married three times and had nine children.

Fans can see the actual fiddle played by the real life Charles Ingalls at the Laura Ingalls Wilder — Rose Wilder Lane Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. In addition to “Pa’s” infamous fiddle, the museum has items such as handwritten manuscripts for the Little House books and needlework by Ingalls Wilder.