Surveyors' House

Surveyors' House. . The Surveyors' House is the oldest building in De Smet, built a year before there was even a town. It was built around 1879 as a railroad company house. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in her Little House books of living in this home the first winter the Ingalls family spent on the Dakota prairies., The Surveyors' House originally stood on the north shore of Silver Lake until it was moved to town in 1884. Many different families have lived in the house over the years. There were no major changes to the house until 1945. At this time the old planks and batten still covered the outside. The house was improved by siding the exterior, adding a basement, running water and indoor plumbing. The steps and entry were later added to the basement., In 1967, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society purchased the home and the task of restoring the Surveyors' House began. With the Society and local groups hard at work, the home soon started to look like it had in 1879. The Surveyors' House was opened the following year to many visitors interested in seeing the "surveyors' house" of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood., According to Pa's journal, the Ingalls family moved in on December 1, 1879. The family spent their first winter here, the house often serving as a hotel for the many homesteaders coming through the area. Laura wrote of the many experiences of that first winter in her book, By the Shores of Silver Lake.