While I’m mainly focused on Agatha Christie and the 1920s of late, my first books were about Illinois history in the 1830s, and I still have a great interest in that period. Last week, we pursued that interest at a Little House on the Prairie “pop-up experience.”

Do you remember the Michael Landon/Melissa Gilbert series in the 1970s and 1980s? Netflix is releasing a reboot. The first episodes arrive July 9, and I believe a second season has already been greenlit.

For promotional purposes, Netflix hosted a “pop-up experience” in downtown Chicago on the appropriately named Pioneer Court. Pioneer Court is thought to be located on the homestead site of Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, one of Chicago’s earliest non-native inhabitants, and it is now a privately owned square that hosts farmers’ markets and similar events.

The Little House Experience was enclosed by split rail fencing, hay bales, and fresh flowers with a series of booths and tables inside. Music was provided by a fiddler and a banjo player and costumed actors controlled visitor numbers so it was never a crowded free-for-all. We were each handed two “tickets” on entering, one for the craft booth and the other for a free donut. Which was delicious, by the way!

Before the official opening of the Experience, the stars of the new series, Crosby Fitsgerald as “Ma” and Luke Bracey as “Pa,” stopped by to for publicity photos and took photos with those of us waiting in line as well. They were very nice and gracious. Most folks waiting were grown adults who didn’t even have children with them. One lady my age sported a well-worn "Big Woods, Wisconsin" T-shirt. The guy in front of us, who was from Peru – the South American one, not Peru, Illinois – said he grew up loving the Michael Landon show.

My book Ruth by Lake and Prairie is a Little House-style story about the founders of Naperville, Illinois, which is what piqued our interest in this “experience.” Ruth’s story actually takes place forty years before Laura’s, in 1831. Laura’s “Pa,” Charles Ingalls, wasn’t even born until 1836. There’s also this weird bit of coincidence:  While Charles Ingalls was born in New York and died in South Dakota, between the ages of seven and fifteen, he lived in Kane County, Illinois, not far from where we live now. Ruth’s brother even married an Ingalls relation.  

Ruth by Lake and Prairie was written specifically for the 175th anniversary of Naperville’s founding because I figured children who lived in the city should know more about the origin story. Unlike the Little House books, no one remembered and wrote down all the stories from that time. I pieced together what I could find from history books, newspaper articles, and family tales, and embellished a bit with historically accurate details. Laura Ingalls Wilder also embellished, by the way!

Besides being forty years earlier, the main difference between the two stories is that Ruth’s adventure was a three-week voyage on the Great Lakes. Yes, the last leg of the journey was a wagon train from the shores of Lake Michigan to the banks of the DuPage River, but most of the settlers’ time was spent on the schooner Telegraph during a particularly stormy summer.

Don dreams of a Ruth by Lake and Prairie movie or limited series. I suspect a tempestuous lake voyage is more expensive to recreate than a prairie journey, making it less attractive to producers, but one never knows! Meanwhile, we enjoyed chatting with the event coordinators and costumed actors, exploring the provided activities, and eating a really good donut!