Land of Laura: the Podcast about Laura Ingalls Wilder

The question has puzzled researchers for years: what happened with the baby Rose Wilder Lane lost early in her marriage to Gillette Lane?

We first heard from Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer Sallie Ketcham back on episode 23 talking about Rose Wilder Lane’s ghostwriting. But she's also the researcher who couldn't stop wondering what exactly happened with the pregnancy Rose had mentioned obliquely over the course of her life. When was Rose pregnant? When did she lose the baby? And where?

Sallie uncovered what no one else could. She's on Land of Laura now to talk about what she learned about this part of Rose's life, as well as the research process that led to it.

In a bonus episode available on the Land of Laura Patreon, Sallie shares the heavy influence of fairy tales on the writing of Little House in the Big Woods, and the elements of fairy tales that both Laura and Rose relied on to create that book.

patreon.com/landoflaura

https://www.routledge.com/Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-American-Writer-on-the-Prairie/Ketcham/p/book/9780415820202

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/laura-ingalls-wilder-and-the-wolves/

https://kellykferguson.substack.com

https://naasr.org/products/children-of-ararat

https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-50-2/it-was-in-armenia-that-i-learned-fear-rose-wilder-lane-and-the-armenian-genocide/sdh-5002-01.pdf

After attending the very first LauraPalooza conference in 2010 put on by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, researcher and educator Susan Thurlow prepared a project for the next conference in 2012. Her topic: Dr. George Tann, an African-American character from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1935 book Little House on the Prairie.

As a parent of several African American and Afro-Caribbean children, Susan made this a family project, involving several of her children in the creation of a biographical booklet Dr. George Tann: Black Frontier Physician.

With the new Netflix TV show out in 2026, Dr. Tann is again at the forefront of Little House conversation. But what do we really know about his real life?

Susan has continued to study Dr. Tann, and now she's in the Land of Laura studio to tell us all about him.

Mentioned in this episode:

Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum https://www.cspm.org/

Rockledge Ranch Historic Site https://rockledgeranch.com/

Doctor Who Fetched the Family Dog by Eileen Miles Charbo (out of print)

https://www.abebooks.com/9789996289255/Doctor-Fetched-Family-Dog-Story-9996289257/plp

Sarah Uthoff of Trundlebed Tales https://www.trundlebedtales.com/index.html

"Dr. Tann, a Pioneer Physician and Neighbor to the Ingalls" on the official Little House on the Prairie site

https://littlehouseontheprairie.com/dr-george-a-tann-pioneer-physician-and-neighbor-to-the-ingalls/

The All-White World of Children's Books by Nancy Larrick (search the Internet for the PDF)

Researcher Nancy Cleaveland pioneergirl.com

Diploma Mill by David Alan Johnson

https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2017/diploma-mill/

Land of Laura, the podcast about all things Laura Ingalls Wilder, is launching a Patreon. Joining the Land of Laura Patreon community helps support the podcast we all love. With levels ranging from free to however much you want to pay, every member can decide their own level of support.

www.patreon.com/landoflaura

Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in Mansfield, Missouri from 1894 until her death in 1957. Today, the farmhouse she and her husband, Almanzo, built, as well as the stone cottage known as the Rock House that their daughter Rose Wilder Lane designed and had built for them, are all part of the homesite in Mansfield.

Collectively, the homesite is known by the name Laura gave it: Rocky Ridge Farm.

Visitors to Rocky Ridge can tour the farmhouse, the Rock House, and a museum that houses an impressive collection of Wilder-related artifacts, including Pa’s fiddle – the actual instrument Charles Ingalls played for his family that we all read about in the Little House books.

Mansfield native Michelle Underwood has been a docent at Rocky Ridge since 2018, shortly after she moved back to her hometown. In 2023 Michelle released LAURA INGALLS WILDER'S ROCKY RIDGE FARM, a guidebook to the homesite that details everything a tourist might see at Rocky Ridge.

In this episode, Land of Laura talks to Michelle about her book, her job, and what it’s like to be behind the scenes at Laura’s Rocky Ridge.

https://www.amazon.ca/Laura-Ingalls-Wilders-Rocky-Ridge/dp/B0CHL5FG25

https://lauraingallswilderhome.com/

Eddie Higgins, a researcher and friend of the Land of Laura podcast, interviews journalist and professor Christine Woodside.

When Woodside set out to write a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, she couldn't help but keep coming back to politics. Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who was a silent collaborator in shaping the Little House book series, is considered along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson to be one of the founding godmothers of libertarianism.

Woodside's resulting 2016 biography, LIBERTARIANS ON THE PRAIRIE: LAURA INGALLS WILDER, ROSE WILDER LANDE, AND THE MAKING OF THE LITTLE HOUSE BOOK, provides a close look at the working relationship between mother and daughter. The two women created the Little House series against the backdrop of the Depression, and Woodside shows how their opinions on the politics of the day couldn't help but organically seep into the book series.

Libertarians on the Prairie

https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/sky-pony-press/9781628726565/libertarians-on-the-prairie/

"Little House on the Prairie: The contested collaboration between Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane" by Christine Woodside

https://publicseminar.org/2018/04/little-house-on-the-prairie/

American Made by Farah Stockman: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591675/american-made-by-farah-stockman/

"All the World is Queer," column by Mrs. A.J. Wilder in the Missouri Ruralist, September 20, 1916 — where Laura describes throwing and then kicking an automatic butter churn that she disliked using. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist, page 84

Peter Bagge has written graphic novels/biographies about three free-thinking, independent women living in the early to mid-twentieth century: birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston ... and Rose Wilder Lane.

Peter describes the release of his book on Rose Wilder Lane,called CREDO, with one word: crickets. It just didn’t sell well. Even Land of Laura host Sandra Hume had dismissed the title at first, not quite absorbing that it was a biography about Rose Wilder Lane. But CREDO is creative and entertaining and enlightening, showing Rose Wilder Lane's life from her early childhood in 1880s Dakota Territory to her last days in Connecticut in 1968.

Now Peter’s here on Land of Laura to tell us all about it.

We've all been anticipating the launch of the first season of the 2026 version of Little House on the Prairie on Netflix. Was it going to be like the 1970s Michael Landon show? Would it adhere closely to the book series, or would it deviate? How would they depict the Osage Native Americans? What would be added — or subtracted — to complete their vision?

Land of Laura invited Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer Pamela Smith Hill along with The Wilder Life author Wendy McClure to come to the studio and offer their reactions to the 8 episodes of the first season.

From Hallmark to the Civil War to Days of Heaven, Pamela and Wendy, along with host Sandra Hume, discuss influences, oversights, inspiration, and what the showrunners got exactly right.

Mentioned in the episode:

Days of Heaven (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Heaven)

Pioneer Girl website (www.pioneergirl.com)

Laura Ingalls Gunn (https://decortoadore.net/)

Pioneer Girl, Wilder's autobiography (https://www.sdhspress.com/books/pioneer-girl-the-annotated-autobiography)

Wendy McClure (www. wendymcclure.net)

Pamela Smith Hill (www.pamelasmithhill.com)

Sandra Hume is back to welcome you to Season 2 of Land of Laura. Find out what's on deck for the second season and what changes are in store for the only podcast around about all things Laura Ingalls Wilder.

In 1974, Ed Friendly created the Little House on the Prairie TV show with Michael Landon. Creative differences spurred Ed to leave the show early on, though he still produced it.

This July, a new Little House on the Prairie comes to the small screen. It's executive produced by Friendly Family Productions, where Ed's son, Trip, is the CEO. Today Trip is our guest on Land of Laura, along with his daughter, Rebecca, COO of the company. They're both excited for the new Little House on the Prairie, and want to share how this new adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books came to be.

Author Nancy McCabe listened to several episodes of Land of Laura and heard the guests share their origin stories. She thought: what about Sandra Hume's origin story?

In this episode Nancy turns the tables on Sandra and asks what brought the podcast host into the world of Little House. Sandra shares her history with creating the Homesteader newsletter, co-founding the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association and its LauraPalooza conference, publishing the Land of Laura travel guides to the Wilder homesites in the upper Midwest, starting the Land of Laura podcast, and writing her young-adult novel, No Shade on the Prairie, about a Little House road trip.