About this city
Also known as: Little House on the Prairie Hometown
De Smet is a charming, beautifully preserved rural prairie town positioned flatly on the high agricultural plateau of Kingsbury County in eastern South Dakota. Laid out meticulously in 1880 during the rapid westward expansion of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company railway, the town long served as a vital shipping terminal for grain and cattle. De Smet has achieved immortal global cultural fame and a mythic status in literature as the real-world childhood home and setting for six of legendary author Laura Ingalls Wilder's iconic 'Little House on the Prairie' novels.
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Practical Tourism Metadata
Suggested stay: 1 day
Tour the meticulously detailed pioneer rooms and authentic surveyor's log home at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes, experience driving an authentic horse-drawn covered wagon, and photograph historic cottonwood trees.
