The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum commemorates the Wilder family's time in the Walnut Grove area, as well as the pioneer lifestyle. There are several Laura Ingalls Wilder Museums across the country; this one has a series of interesting buildings, including a railroad depot, a chapel, an onion-domed house, a dugout display, an antique doll collection, and more.

What makes this Wilder location truly unique is the Wilder pageant play that is held every weekend in July. Built into a hillside amphitheater, the play draws large crowds and has extensive lighting, sound, and pyrotechnics. Yeah, you read that right...pyrotechnics.

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Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie book series, lived with her family at this location (1.5 miles north of Walnut Grove) on the banks of Plum Creek from 1874 to 1876. After three consecutive crop failures, the family moved to Burr Oak, IA to help operate the Masters Hotel.

The historical significance of the location was unknown to the owners until Garth Williams, an illustrator of Laura's books, had researched the Wilder family's trail in courthouse records. He approached the owners with the information, and the unusual depression near the creek was determined to be the remains of Wilder dugout home.

Today, the site is maintained by the owners of the property and is open to the public. Twenty-five acres of the surrounding land have been replanted with native grasses to enhance the experience.

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The author of The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Island of Dr. Moreau, Herbert George (H.G.) Wells was born at Atlas House, 47 High Street, Bromley, in the county of Kent, a small market town, on September 21, 1866.

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Sylvia Plath, the American writer and poet, committed suicide at this location on February 11, 1963. Plath had asphyxiated from carbon monoxide by putting her head in the oven.

In 1982, Plath was the first poet to win the Pulitzer Prize posthumously for her poetry book, The Collected Poems. Her book, The Bell Jar, was originally published under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas, and was first published a month after her death in 1963. In 1967, it was published for the first time under her name, and not published in the United States until 1971.

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In the early spring of 1972, Robert Pirsig wrote the final five chapters of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in a two month period. To avoid interruptions he acquired a camper and drove it to a commercial campground that was closed for the winter on the north shore of Lake Superior. He lived and worked in the camper, working while there was natural sunlight because lights in the camper weren't adequate.

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