Day: July 6, 2015

Here you can read about Turner Hall.  I never took a picture of the entire building.  The website isn’t too interested in showing the whole building either.

 

But with this really great sign, you can see why I got distracted.

Being tourists, we headed to the Rathskeller. I’d read they serve “heavy German food” which was music to my ears.

We went for Herman Balls.  In case you aren’t aware, that’s German potato salad deep fried with 1000 Island Dressing to dip.  Herman Balls were delicious.

 

Sara chose the Brat Sliders and I had the best grilled cheese sandwich ever:  Bacon Almond Grilled Cheese with chunks of green onion.  

The Rathskeller had this great poster, which I photographed just so Matt could read me everything.

It also has amazing murals and a great fireplace.

The bathroom featured wonderful historic photos.  Guys in the bar:

Turner gymnasts back in the day. I’m guessing the vast majority of Turner gymnasts today are female.

 

Here you can read about the monument.

 

And here is the back side of the monument.  Unfortunately, I never took a picture of the front.  I see I’m not the only one to shirk my duty.  The official web site doesn’t have any really great front pictures of it either.

After paying our admission, we made the approach, stopping to take a picture of one of the Lions.
(Which, if you spend any time with Sara, you will know that “Lions are king.  Uh-huh.  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” which is the aptly named “Whiny cheer”.

 

I bring you the wrought iron update from the Hermann monument.

 

After ascending the spiral stairs, there is a reprieve with some windows.

One final spiral and a ladder that affords a view of Hermann’s underthings.

Sara climbing up.

It was quite windy.

Shadows and roof flourishes.

 

The view.

 

Leaving the Walnut Grove area, we headed to New Ulm, and I got massively bored following trucks on the highway.  Sara suggested we turn off at the Family Jubilee Shrine and we had a quick diversion.

 

The shrine itself.

Interior

I enjoyed the digital clock.

Ceiling dove.  (Probably not what it’s called.  Shawn?)

 

Stained glass.

 

Built in 1976. I wondered what the symbol meant, but am not actually going to search and find out.

 

Hey, there’s a lake over there!  Quite a big one.  I loved coming across all the Minnesota lakes.

Aside from the shrine there is a retreat center and yearly events, should you want to explore.  I wouldn’t mind attending the Garage Sale at the Shrine in August.

Here we are, on the way to the site of the famous dugout.
(Note that the book pictured is the edition I grew up with.  My versions were yellow boardered, then came blue, then gingham.)

The Gordon family purchased this farm in 1947.  That year, Garth Williams, the illustrator of the series that most people are familiar with, informed the Gordon family that the weird depression by the creek was the former Ingalls Dugout.  The Gordon family still owns the farm and makes it easy for fans to visit the site.  This was a highlight of my trip.  Also, their printed warning above the pay box cracks me up.

Sara on the banks of Plum Creek, despairing because she dropped her museum leaflet into the creek. The sign you can see in the background marks the site of the dugout.

Shadows on the banks of Plum Creek.  We’re both taking pictures.

There had been a substantial amount of rain the night before, so the creek was running high.

 

 

Crossing a bridge, we climbed up to the dugout site.  Look how small it was.

Roped off outline of the dugout.

Plum trees.

 

Restored prairie.

Discussion about where the big rock was.  I noticed in the hand-drawn map from the previous post Laura had it on the other side of the creek.

The Little House books are fictionalized accounts of Laura’s childhood.  I recommend Pamela Smith Hill’s excellent book Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life which not only compares Wilder’s actual biography to the chronology of the books, but also examines the writing of the series.  The same author also annotated Wilder’s earlier autobiography Pioneer Girl which I haven’t yet read, but am looking forward to getting my hands on.

I know the books backwards and forwards, and I’ve read a lot of supplemental Laura Ingalls Wilder publishing.  Standing on the banks of Plum Creek was a good way to feel a connection to Laura the girl who would become a renowned author, just as visiting her house in Mansfield Missouri was a good way to connect to the author herself.

After the museum, we ate at Nellie’s Cafe, which a girl at the museum recommended because of their homemade pie which she said she enjoyed.

 

Service was good and Sara got egg salad and tots while I had a bowl of Au Gratin potato soup.  I also ordered pea salad, which I’d never had before.  I feel like pea salad is in my future in some form, the recipe just needs to be refined a little.

After our meal, Sara ordered cherry pie and we both agreed that we need to bring that poor girl at the museum some real homemade pie.

Water tower in town.  They know on which side their bread is buttered.

We arrived in Walnut Grove and followed the signs to the museum.

This sign advertised several Laura Ingalls Wilder museums.  Interestingly, the Mansfield Missouri one is not listed here.  Also, what’s Spring Valley?  It turns out to be where the Wilder family (Almazo’s parents) lived after they moved from New York State.  Laura and Almanzo lived there after De Smit but before living in Florida.

We visited the store to buy our tickets and I bought a pressed penny.  I went with Jack.

 

There are two parts to the Laura Ingalls Wilder part of this museum: books and tv series. The events depcited in the book On the Banks of Plum Creek happened outside of Walnut Grove and the tv series Little House on the Prairie was set in Walnut Grove.

Being a fan of the books and not the TV show, I was interested in the book part of the museum.

This was very cool. They had several piece of illustrator Garth Williams’s work.  At the top is the rough sketch, then both the black and white and the color version of the final drawing. Below that is the text from the book.  This picture will also come in handy for the next post, so take a good look.

 

Here is Nellie Oleson being mean.

 

Actual things Laura owned.  (The museum would phrase this as ACTUAL things Laura OWNED!!!!)

 

The museum’s system indicating items owned by Laura Ingalls Wilder were backed by the shiny green border.

I found this museum to be a little heavy on things that weren’t really museum-quality like this framed Scriptural GUIDE.  If you are curious as to what Psalm 51 is, it’s here.

 

However, some of the not-so-museum-quality items made me laugh. Like this one.

 

The museum also included pictures and stories of people in the Walnut Grove area that Laura adapted for characters.  And here’s a blow up of a map Laura drew of Plum Creek.

 

We then entered the “TV” section of the museum, which I was not at all enamored with.  Here are two pictures of the actor/actual people.  Note:  I’ve not seen this photo of Charles Ingalls before.  Why is he sticking his finger in his ear?

 

There was a Walnut Grove mural and photos from the television series, as well as episodes of the television series playing.  There was also memorabilia from cast reunions which took place in Walnut Grove (though the show was filmed in California).

After exiting the book/tv part of the museum, it was time to wind our way through the other exhibits.  These included a dugout.

This dugout (unlike the one we visited in the prior post) has whitewashed walls.

 

It is very small.

As Sara demonstrates.

There was also a schoolhouse.

And a fancy house that had exhibits of a variety of things.  In front of it, you can see the reconstructed prairie.

 

Sara inside the fancy house playing dress-up.

There was another building with a post-office where you could sort letters, a covered wagon and other such things.

This house was across the street from the museum.  But what’s relevant is the sign in the yard.

Master’s Hotel was once here.  The brochure says it’s where Laura once worked, but all googling leads to the Master’s Hotel in Iowa which Charles Ingalls managed.  I did find a link for this book, which spells the hotel this way:  Masters’ Hotel.

Happily, we availed ourselves of the head-in-the-hole opportunities, first as farmer and wife.

Then as children.

There was also a covered wagon.

Hey!  Speaking of Children’s Literature, let’s drive to southern Minnesota and see some Little House sights!

Our first stop is the Sod House on the Prairie.

Stan McCone built a sod house and a dugout on his farm near Sanborne, MN.  He cut the sod from a site several miles away and brought it to his farm.  He also restored five acres of prairie grasses and wildflowers.

Approaching the sod house.

Inside.  This is a very fancy example of a sod house.  It is very large with its whitewashed walls.  It served as a bed and breakfast for many years, though it does not anymore.

The thick window frames remind me of cobb houses.

Overall, it’s a pretty spacious and light-filled dwelling.

I loved the door detail.

On our way to the dugout we encountered a farm cat.

Prairie and flowers.

The dugout.   The back side is dug into a hill.

Front door and roof detail.

This is much smaller than the soddy.  It felt oppressive inside, even with two very big windows.

This was bigger than the dugout Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family occupied in On the Banks of Plum Creek.  And that dugout only had one window and it was grease paper.

Plow.

Tool needed to create sod house/dugout.

The ever important outhouse.

View of both the dugout and the soddy.

Pretty prairie flower. The internet tells me its Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) L.