laura ingalls wilder museum

Beautiful area to visit in October and Pepin is very charming. The museum is overpriced for what there is to see.....is there any Laura Ingalls stuff in here? ...very disappointing and the staff was not engaging. Yawnnnnnnn!

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Pepin was the second Laura Ingalls Wilder homesite my daughter and I stopped at while on a LIW homesite tour last month. We stopped in on a Thursday before visiting the Little House wayside. I found the museum without problem. It’s right on Highway 35, the main street that goes through the town. The woman at the cash register wasn’t rude, but she wasn’t welcoming either. I paid our admission fee, and she pointed out the two museum rooms that we could go through. After looking through the gift shop for a few minutes, we went into the Laura museum section. The large dark room had various items that are from the time period of Laura. There are a few items on display – including a dress – that were owned by Laura’s actual first teacher. I was impressed that the teacher’s items made their way into the right hands to be put on display here. I’m sure how that happened would make an interesting story. Toward the back of the room, there is a small room modeled to look like a kitchen from the 1870s or so. The room has a couple of old stoves, a cupboard, a butter churn, and a couple of straw brooms. There are shelves filled with “old time” items like a hand coffee grinder, and various plates and pots.We then went to the other side of the museum, where a large room had an 1800s transportation focus. There is a row boat and a covered wagon on display, plus a replica steam boat. My daughter liked climbing the ladder to the top of the steam boat, where a wheel allowed her to “steer.” Off this transportation room was a semi-old-time classroom, with desks, a teacher’s desk, and a blackboard. However, there were no accessories – no slates, no slate pencils, no chalk, no books or educational papers to teach kids anything about what school was like in Laura’s era.In my opinion, a much better use of the classroom and/or transportation space would be to create hands-on activities of themes from the “Big Woods” book. My daughter and I enjoyed the gift shop, which had many Laura items. It had an excellent selection of books, replica old timey toys, sunbonnets, dresses, hard candy, jewelry. All were reasonably priced. Of all the sites, I liked this site’s t-shirt the best, and am glad I bought one here for both of us here (they were the only Laura shirts we bought). Perhaps there’s not as much motivation for the museum to stand out because Pepin already has many tourists. However, Laura’s birthplace deserves better than this museum. As much as I love everything Laura, I wouldn’t return to this site for the Laura museum.

While visiting my brother, who lives about an hour from Pepin, I took my kids to the Laura Ingalls Museum. My daughter and I are huge Laura Ingalls fans. The gift shop is very nice and it has a wonderful selection of books, CD' s, bonnets and miscellaneous. One large room had many tools and household items from the time period that the Ingalls family lived in Pepin, but hardly anything actually belonged to Laura or her family. Another room had a paddle boat for kids to play on and a school room to play school in. While my 13 year old was quickly bored, my three and seven year olds played for a long time with the school room and boat. We drove the seven miles out of town to see the log cabin that wad reconstructed on the land that Laura's parents owned when they lived in WI. It was a pretty day, so we enjoyed being on the Ingalls's old property. We had a wonderful lunch just a block or so up the road from the museum and then drove the two blocks down to lake Pepin. We had a nice time, but I only gave the museum 3 stars bc they really did not have anything that belonged to Laura Ingalls.

We knew to have low expectations going in, but it was part of finishing up our Laura tour. There are many relics from the area, but they aren't displayed in much of a cohesive pattern--schoolroom, front of a riverboat, kitchen, and room with clothing and other items. Worst of the LIW gift shops I've been in.

Our family was excited to visit Pepin, the site of "Little House in the Big Woods", and this museum. Fortunately, I had read many reviews of the museum before visiting, so my expectations were low. As other reviewers have said, there isn't much here about Laura. It really seems to be more of a Pepin historical museum, focusing on pioneer times. With that being said, there were some interesting artifacts from families in the area. I was able to see items described in the books, although of course, they were not items from the Ingalls family.If you are a Laura fan, it is interesting to drive a few miles out of town to the wayside built on land owned by the Ingalls family. A small cabin has been built according to the description in the book. Overall, I'm glad I stopped- but given a choice, De Smet, SD is a much better Laura destination.

I hadn't been to the museum in many years, so didn't remember much about what it was like. It was quite disappointing. We brought relatives from Sweden who didn't know much about Laura, and the museum wasn't much help. There needs to be displays about LAURA and her family, their travels, info about their lives, etc. I understand there aren't a lot of Laura artifacts out there, but there should at least be LOTS of information about her. The attendant was very nice and the gift shop was fine. I give it a 2 out of 10--it was actually kind of embarrassing to have brought my cousins there.

We were pretty excited to see some actual Laura Ingalls Wilder history here. We were also excited that they had recently expanded the museum. We spent $14 for their immediate family pack. The lady in the front was nice, but not very informative about the museum. It was a very small museum and didn't have much of a theme except the Little House books. There was more history on Pepin and the river boats than about the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The gift shop was nice and would be worth stopping in. But we were pretty let down and bored by the end. If you like postcards, books and some clothes from the era than you will likely enjoy this small museum.I liked showing my kids the stoves and washing machine from the era; the letter from Laura and her Bible reading notes were the only things that seemed truly themed to what the museum claimed to be. There was a mockup tugboat that my kids enjoyed.Bottom line: save your money and check out the birthplace cabin instead.

The tour book describes this museum as Laura Ingalls Wilder themed, with items from that era. Indeed that what it is. A modest collection of items from the region spanning the late 1800’s. The “little house” books play a big part in the display and much effort is made to link the historical artifacts with Mrs. Wilder. The success of this linkage is mixed as best. There are no specific relics from the Wilder or Ingalls family, or at least I did not notice any. The museum was staffed by friendly people and the admission cost reflects the amount and quality of the collection. Many displays are not behind glass or any substantial barriers, so control of children (or thoughtless adults) is important. They have a riverboat play area of sorts that will occupy children for a short time. North of the museum is a reconstruction of the cabin the Ingalls owned, in a park like setting. The cabin is empty, but gives a good impression of the space these settlers had to deal with. I was not disappointed with the museum, mainly because we did not expect a definitive Laura Ingalls Wilder collection. I think the historical society of Pepin has done a good job with the material they have and I wish them good tidings.

My husband and I came here on Saturday, June 7, while on vacation. Being a huge "Little House on the Prairie" tv show fan and having read all of the books, I had high hopes for this museum, despite the negative comments on Tripadvisor that my husband found. First and foremost, when the website says "free will donation" one instantly assumes "FREE WILL" -- nope, not the case, as we were hit up for $10 the moment we walked in the door by a very unpleasant attendant! From the appearance of the exterior, one would assume, again wrongly, that the place would be packed with memorabilia - there were exactly 2 small rooms not counting the gift shop! After going through each room as thoroughly as possible, I drew the conclusion that many of the artifacts were donated by whomever, and NOT totally about Laura Ingalls Wilder or the Ingalls family but more "historical society stuff" - if that makes any sense. I was allowed to take photographs and we did purchase some books from the gift shop, but trust me, I've been to far better museums, that were truly dedicated to the name of the attraction, than this one. Save your money and go see the Laura Ingalls Wilder birthplace cabin and wayside...it is far more interesting...and its FREE!!!!

My wife has a fascination for Laura Ingalls-Wilder and we both loved the Little House TV series, so while planning a vacation to Wisconsin, I planned to visit the Wilder Museum in Pepin. Doing some research online, I found out it was donations only admission. I also read some of the reviews on Tripadvisor, some good, some bad, but none gave it a five. I decide to add it to our travel plans anyway. I wished I hadn't. We go in and are met by an elderly woman, making small talk, we had remarked that they had gotten a lot more rain than we had in Iowa because their rivers were really high. She replied she didn't know, it rain last night but she didn't know anything about it. That was the extent of the pleasantries we were going to get out of her. We then told her we wanted to go through the museum and she proceeded to charge us five dollars a piece. A far cry from donations only. We paid it, since it looked like a new building and was larger than expected, we thought it might have a lot to see. Then the next shocker, there were only two rooms to view. One room had a replica of a riverboat (one of my interests) but not much else. Most of the items were about the town and time period of the Ingalls and not much was about the family itself. In the other room, it was more about the Ingalls and they had a few interesting items, a dress Laura's school teacher wore, a copy of Pa's big green book (Not the original, it's in another museum) and of course a copy of the famous penny Laura got for Christmas. What there was to see was nice, just not worth five dollars a person. I realize they have to pay for their new building, but. My advice stop and take a picture of the cute little sign in front of the place and drive up County Road CC, to the Wayside Cabin where Laura was born, unless you are such a Laura Ingalls buff you have to stop, then just be prepared.

If you are a Little House on the Prairie fan, you will love this little museum and gift shop. It was interesting to see how the pioneers lived in those days and was great to see a little bit of how this wonderful family lived. It was a short walk through but loved many of the gifts they had available. Bought our granddaughter some of the Laura Ingalls story books.

The museum was being extended when we visited on our Great River Road trip in September 2013, but the exhibits on display showing rural and domestic life were interesting. Displays were well presented, if limited. The member of staff on duty was very welcoming and left you to wander around at your own pace.

After visiting the Laura Ingalls Wayside Cabin (really nice!!) we went into Pepin to visit this museum. As I was still excited about the Wayside Cabin, I left a good size contribution in the donation jar and the lady at the front desk noticed this, but no response. We looked at the exhibits in the same period of the Ingalls family, but not their items. Poorly described in faded ink, poor conditions of photos (copies) and the lady at the desk, who was reading a book, was very bored with her job and didn't even acknowledged our presence. Not worth the visit.

We just went to Pepin for our second annual Laura Days. We stopped at the Laura Museum and gift shop. There are not many actual Ingalls family pieces here, just period pieces. But it is still interesting and a must stop in Pepin. A great look into pioneer times. They are expanding the building and it looks like it will be very nice once done. The gift shop carries the same pieces at all Laura site gift shops.

This is a small museum, but it was nice and we enjoyed our visit. The lady working there was very friendly as well. It's a small museum but had a lot of items although many of them aren't "Laura" items. They are building an expansion next door which should be open soon, so maybe they'll add more Laura things later. Also, if you are planning on going early you might want to check what time they open as the website said 9am but we found that they didn't open until 10am the day we went. Thankfully, we were staying across the street and hadn't checked out yet.