De Smet in the Past

Laura Ingalls Wilder moved here when she was twelve, when De Smet was little more that a railroad camp, and the Ingalls lived in the Surveyors House.

In 1880, Pa filed his claim , and built his claim shanty. Pa also bought a store in town on the main street of De Smet. Here, Laura and her family lived through The Long Winter, made many friends as the town grew, got her first job as a seamstress, taught her three terms of school (near De Smet), fell in love and got married.