The Real-Life Story Behind the Brutal Long Winter in ‘Little House on the Prairie’

Born in 1867, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a teacher, journalist, and writer whose Little House on the Prairie series of novels have become beloved of generations of children and adults alike.

The books, which were published between 1932 and 1943, were based on Wilder's real-life experiences of growing up in the American Midwest as the daughter of a settler family during the last decades of the 19th century. Later generations came to know these stories thanks to the long running television adaptation starring Michael Landon, which ran from 1974 to 1983 and garnered numerous Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. 

Netflix has adapted the story for a new eight-episode show, streaming now. It’s already been renewed for a second season.

The 1880 “Hard Winter” Inspired The Long Winter

Wilder penned nine books in the series, and The Long Winter, which was first published in 1940, is the sixth. Set in Dakota Territory, the plot concerns a severe winter that brings famine and hardship to the region. The book begins during the Summer of 1880, when Laura is 14 years old. The Ingalls family receives warnings from a Native American man that the coming winter will be extremely harsh. In October, a blizzard strikes, leading the Ingalls to relocate from their wooden cabin to the family's store building in the town of De Smet.

As blizzards continue to fall, Laura's school is forced to close. With trains unable to get through, stocks of fuel and food dwindle and the situation becomes desperate. Locals Almanzo Wilder (who later marries Laura) and Cap Garland make a brave trip 20 miles to bring back vital wheat, and, with thaws finally arriving in May, the Ingalls family enjoys a much-belated Christmas celebration.

The main plot—the severe winter—really did hit the area from fall 1880 until spring the following year.

In 2020, Barbara Mayes Boustead, of the University of Nebraska, headed a study into just how bad the conditions were at the time. They found that, for a wide swath of that part of the country, the winter of 1880-1881 ranked in the top five most severe ever documented, with some regions experiencing their worst on record.

The Chicago and Northwestern Railway did indeed suspend their services, leading to a terrible shortage of supplies. Many of the characters who appear in the book are real, including Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland, who really did venture into the wilds to retrieve a cache of wheat.

While minor details and events have been added for dramatic effect, The Long Winter serves as an accurate reflection of the adversity that the Ingalls and many others had to endure at that time.

More History Reads: