As one of the most beloved television shows ever produced, Little House on the Prairie can still be seen on TV today, as the show’s strong syndication record has kept it afloat for decades. Originally developed by Blanche Hanalis, the series was headlined by former Bonanza star Michael Landon, who directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the bulk of the original series. Running from 1974 to 1982, the original Little House was a delight, focusing on the Ingalls family as they fight to make a life for themselves in the small town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Armed with a cast of supporting (and some non-supporting, if you catch our drift) townsfolk, Little House thrived on television for eight regular seasons, with an additional ninth season — a spin-off re-titled Little House: A New Beginning — airing in 1982. But although the majority of the series takes place in the very real town of Walnut Grove, fans have often wondered where the fictionalized version actually resides. Was Little House shot on-location in Minnesota, or did some tricky Hollywood magic just lead you to believe that?
What Is ‘Little House on the Prairie’?
It’s a well-known fact that Little House on the Prairie was based on the book series of the same name written by the real-life Laura Ingalls Wilder. To pass down her family’s history, Wilder wrote about their experiences beginning with her childhood as told in Little House in the Big Woods. From there, eight other books were written, detailing Laura’s upbringing, how she later met her husband Almanzo Wilder, and the beginnings of their own family. Naturally, the television series deviates from Wilder’s original autobiographical novels, but that’s to be expected.
The series itself centers primarily on fictionalized versions of Charles Ingalls (Landon), his wife Caroline (Karen Grassle), and daughters Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson), Carrie (Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush), and young Laura (played by Melissa Gilbert) herself. As the Ingalls family build their homestead near Plum Creek, they learn plenty of life lessons along the way. If you’re a lover of good, old-fashioned, and wholesome entertainment, then Little House is the show for you. Of course, the themes and characters changed over time (being on the air for about a decade will do that), so when the show ended and the sequel, A New Beginning, premiered, a drastic shift came as no surprise.
But because of the changes made between the eighth and what became known as the ninth season of the show, Little House was abruptly canceled in 1983. Unsatisfied with how the show finished its impressive run, Michael Landon and company (including series regular and Landon’s Highway to Heaven co-star Victor French) produced three more made-for-TV adventures. These movies, Look Back to Yesterday, The Last Farewell, and the Christmas special Bless All The Dear Children (which takes place before The Last Farewell, though it aired afterward) premiered on television within a year of each other, officially concluding Little House’s decade-long run in December 1984.
Where Is ‘Little House’ Set?
According to Wilder’s books, the Ingalls family originally homesteaded in Pepin County, Wisconsin (per Little House in the Big Woods) before moving to the prairie lands near Independence, Kansas (as chronicled in Little House on the Prairie). From there, the Ingalls family eventually moved northward to Plum Creek, just outside of Walnut Grove, Minnesota (On the Banks of Plum Creek). In the fifth book, By the Shores of Silver Lake, the Ingalls family moves once again, this time to De Smet, South Dakota (then the Dakota Territory), where Charles aka Pa builds them a house. Many of these locations can still be visited today!
In the Little House television series, however, there are only two primary locations where the Ingalls family makes their address. After moving from Wisconsin to Kansas in the movie-length pilot, Charles, Caroline, and the girls officially move to Plum Creek in the very first episode, “A Harvest of Friends.” The Ingalls family soon became a pillar within the Walnut Grove community, even if Harriet Oleson (Katherine MacGregor) often made them feel unwelcome. Soon, the town becomes a real home to Charles and his girls, and they make a full life there in their little house.
While other locations are occasionally visited, the only other secondary home that the Ingalls family reside in on Little House is Burr Oak, Iowa, where Charles and Caroline move after Season 8 (and live off-screen during A New Beginning). Naturally, Pa and Ma return for The Last Farewell, which sees the town of Walnut Grove completely demolished after the townsfolk destroy it to keep the land out of the hands of development tycoon Nathan Lassiter (James Karen). Apparently, Little House has something in common with Yellowstone after all.
Where Was ‘Little House’ Filmed?
But although the real-life Walnut Grove still stands in Redwood County, Minnesota, the fictionalized version was (unsurprisingly) built with Hollywood magic in Southern California. Specifically, in the hills of Simi Valley, just northeast of Hollywood itself. Almost all the exterior shots on Little House were shot on The Big Sky Movie Ranch, which also boasted shows like Gunsmoke, Twin Peaks, and Jericho. Though the sets no longer stand today, the scenery is just as beautiful today as ever.
Aside from the little town of Walnut Creek itself, the Ingalls’ family homestead off the base of Plum Creek was also filmed at the Big Sky Movie Ranch. In fact, many television Westerns at the time were filmed on large-scale movie ranches to preserve some sort of accuracy and immerse the viewer (and the cast and crew) in the Old West world they were building. It’s not like you can go waltzing through Burbank on a horse, and so, naturally, Little House, though filmed in California, made an honest effort to make their show look as much like the Midwest as possible.
Though the exteriors are the bits about Little House we remember best, the interiors were often reserved for the more intimate scenes, especially those around the Ingalls family dinner table. According to Wide Open Country, the show’s interiors were all filmed at Paramount Studios, which isn’t exactly surprising. Sets are, of course, much easier to control than filming on location, especially if you have child actors performing scenes set at night. The Paramount lot still stands today.
What Happened to the Walnut Grove Set?
As mentioned before, Little House chronologically ends with The Last Farewell, a made-for-TV production meant to wrap everything up. In this movie, the Ingalls clan and their neighbors are forced to destroy their homes with dynamite to keep them from being taken by a greedy land developer. Behind the scenes, director and star Michael Landon opted to destroy the entire set. “I think it makes for a good strong pioneer ending. It was also a nice catharsis for the cast and crew,” Landon told The New York Times following the airing of The Last Farewell. “The actors had all become very attached to their own buildings, so it was very emotional.”
In her memoir, Prairie Tale, actress Melissa Gilbert (aka Laura Ingalls) explained her own childhood observations of the event. “[Landon] was furious that he had never received an official phone call from NBC president Brandon Tartikoff or anyone else at the network, letting him know the fate of the show. He had been on the network since 1959. Perceiving disrespect, Mike’s temper red-lined. He wanted to destroy all the sets — Walnut Grove, everything in Simi Valley.” Whether there was more to Landon’s creative decision, we’ll never know. Sadly, Landon died of pancreatic cancer in 1991.
Unfortunately, the sets that weren’t destroyed by Landon and his crew were destroyed a number of years later. In 2003, a wildfire blazed through Simi Valley and onto the Big Sky Movie Ranch. Tragically, the Little House homestead was burned to the ground as a result. Though the original homestead was destroyed for The Last Farewell, the crew built an exact replica of the titular home for the movie ranch that fans from all over the world would come to see. “It is a total, devastating loss,” mourned Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Leigh Nixon. “That is one of the things Simi was known for.”