“Wilder Pageant” keeps classic story alive

WALNUT GROVE, Minn. (KEYC) - In the late 1800s Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family made their home in southern Minnesota.

Her story was published in the Little House on the Prairie book series, and those stories live on in young readers around the world.

But in Walnut Grove, where the Ingalls family lived, it’s a much more active tradition.

Each year the town holds their Wilder Pageant, reenacting scenes from the book, and showing what lessons we can still learn from Laura and her story.

“We learn that there’s never a bad time for kindness. and that a little bit of kindness can have a huge impact, even though you think it’s something that may be small to you on the receiving side it can be monumental,” Sidney Robyn Greenbush said, who portrayed Carrie Ingalls in the television adaptation that aired in the 1970s.

The pageant brings together people like Greenbush who have been impacted by the story all their lives.

That also includes people like Laura Ingalls Gunn, a cousin of Wilder who keeps her family’s story alive every day.

“That really resonates even today, it’s a timeless story. And to be able to hear from other people what the Ingalls family means to them, I often hear so many wonderful stories. It’s really an honor and a privilege,” Gunn said.

This year’s pageant will start this weekend and will run through July 25.

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