History
The Almanzo Wilder Homestead was not owned by Almanzo himself, but was built and developed by his father, James M. Wilder. James bought the property in 1840 and began building a house and cultivating the land. James, along with wife Angeline Day Wilder and their six children, lived on the property until 1871 when half the family moved to Spring Valley, Minnesota.
James and Angeline had six children; Laura Ann, Royal, Eliza Jane, Alice, Almanzo, and Perley Day. Only four of these children are mentioned in the events of Farmer Boy. Laura Ann was not mentioned, likely to avoid confusion between Laura Wilder and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Perley, however, wasn't born until after the events of the book, when Almanzo is twelve.
Buildings
Future plans, as funds allow, include the construction of additional buildings, such as an icehouse and outhouse.
Click on the images to learn more.
Museum
The Wilder Homestead Museum, located in the Visitor Center, is home to a wonderful collection of artifacts, tools, Wilder photos, and facts about the Wilders, Laura Ingalls, and farm life in the mid–19th century.
Visitors of all ages will delight in the replica homestead models, which were used in the development of the barns and grounds.
Gardens
Mrs. Wilder had a large kitchen garden where she would tend vegetables and herbs, many of which would have been preserved for winter or dried for fabric dyes. Berry bushes would have thrived around the farm and been eaten in-season and preserved as jams.
Our display garden gives visitors a reduced version to view and includes the heritage plant varieties that would have been grown here in the 19th-century. We recently included a Three Sisters garden, which is the planting of corn, beans, and squash close together to help each other survive and thrive! Visitors of the Wilder Farm might catch our head gardener working and are welcome to stop for a chat.
Tour The Homestead
The rooms in the house would have been a restful, but practical place for the family to enjoy life. See the pantry, the wood stoves, the dining room that would have housed the cobbler when he came around, and the parlor with horse-hair chairs that would be used for special occasions. Even the bedrooms were comfortable, but functional. See your guide turn the "bed bugs" upstairs or check out photos of the stain in the parlor where Almanzo threw the stove-blacking brush at Eliza Jane!
