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Little House on the Prairie is officially on Netflix! When I visited the real Ingalls homestead in De Smet, South Dakota, I immediately had so many questions about what life was actually like for the real Laura Ingalls Wilder. Of course, I'm very familiar with the original TV show, but it didn't take long for NBC to take quite a few creative liberties.
Well, after you've watched the Netflix's new summer show, take a peek at some real life facts you might not know about the Ingalls family.
Here are some of the craziest differences between Little House on the Prairie and what actually happened in Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life!
Walnut Grove
Chloe Williams/Brit + Co
While the original Little House on the Prairie show takes place entirely in Walnut Grove, the real Ingalls family actually moved around quite a lot. And the events we see in the show technically happened in De Smet, South Dakota (where By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years are set).
However, NBC thought the name "Walnut Grove" would be better for television so they kept the family in the same spot.
Nellie Oleson
NBC
I'd argue that Nellie Oleson is one of the most iconic fictional antagonists of all time, but the character was actually inspired by three real girls in Laura's life: Nellie Owens from Walnut Grove, Gennie Masters, and Stella Gilbert (who was actually a rival for Almanzo's attention).
Mary Ingalls & Adam Kendall
NBC
I was actually very devastated to find out that Mary never actually got married like we see in the show. Adam Kendall wasn't a real person!
Albert Quinn
NBC
Speaking of characters NBC created, I hate to inform you that Albert was not a real person. Michael Landon wanted to introduce complex storylines like substance abuse and addiction, so he added the character in season 5.
Pa's debts
NBC Television/Courtesy of Getty Images
Every adaptation of Little House on the Prairie paints Charles as an idealist, and someone who's always hopeful something better is around the corner. But in real life, Charles was also poor at handling money. The family had so much debt that they constantly had to move, and even had to leave Iowa in the middle of the night.
"Good old bulldog Jack"
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Laura loved their family dog Jack as much as any kid loves a pet, but unfortunately the family had to leave him in Kansas when they left their first Little House on the Prairie. (Also, it seems the show changed him from a bulldog!)
The Ingalls family's hardships
NBC
Of course, there are quite a few stories from Laura Ingalls' real life that made it into the TV show, but the overall difficulty of life on the prairie was definitely toned down and romanticized for the audience. In real life, a blizzard (like the one we see in Season 3, Episode 11, "Blizzard"), killed three local children and left another with an amputated foot.
Because of their experience with the Locust Plague of 1874 (which lasted so long it affected them in 1880), Charles had to "sign public destitution oaths to receive vital government aid, state-issued grain and charity relief boxes from local churches" (via History).
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