By the Shores of Silver Lake

By the Shores of Silver Lake
By the Shores of Silver Lake book cover, illustrated by Garth Williams
Author(s)	Laura Ingalls Wilder
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Little House
Genre(s)	Family Saga Western
Publisher	Harper & Brothers, Later, Scholastic
Publication date	1939
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Preceded by	On the Banks of Plum Creek
Followed by	The Long Winter

By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was first published in 1939 and is the fifth of nine books written in her Little House on the Prairie series, also known as The Laura Years. The book takes place over a period of just over one year, beginning when Laura is twelve years old and the family moves to what will become De Smet, South Dakota, from Plum Creek, Minnesota. After moving to the Dakota Territory, the family first lives with relatives in a railroad camp, where Pa works as the bookkeeper. The railroad company asks the family to spend the winter in the surveyors' house to watch the equipment, and in the spring Pa files on a nearby claim. Until he can build a shelter there, the family lives in town in a store building Pa built of leftover railroad lumber. As soon as the claim shanty is in place, the family moves into it, although they will return to town during the coming winters until the claim shanty is fully weatherized some five years in the future.

Though Wilder began writing the books as autobiographical recollections, they are considered historical fiction and have won a number of literary awards. By the Shores of Silver Lake was awarded a Newbery Honor award in 1940 for exceptional children’s literature. The enduring popularity of the Little House books has inspired additional book series encompassing more generations of Wilder’s family as well as a long-running television series in the late 1970s that is still in syndication and available on DVD.

Story

By the Shores of Silver Lake is based on Laura's late childhood spent near De Smet, South Dakota, beginning in 1879, after her father accepts an offer to be a railroad bookkeeper from his sister-in-law Docia Forbes. Because her sister Mary was recently blinded due to an illness, Pa asks Laura to "be Mary’s eyes" by describing what she sees, and Laura becomes more patient and mature through this service. The book also introduces Laura's youngest sister Grace Pearl.

By the Shores of Silver Lake begins in Plum Creek, shortly after the family has recovered from the scarlet fever which caused Mary to become blind. The family welcomes a visit from Aunt Docia, whom they had not seen for several years. She suggests that Pa and Ma move out west to Dakota Territory, where Pa would work as the bookkeeper in Uncle Henry’s railroad camp for fifty dollars a month. Ma and Pa agree because the money will relieve their debts and Pa can look for a homestead while he works.

Since Mary is too weak to travel, Pa will go ahead with the wagon and team, and the rest of the family will follow later by train. The morning Pa is to leave, their beloved old bulldog Jack dies in his sleep, saddening Laura greatly. (The dog upon whom Jack was based was no longer with the family at that point, but the author inserted his death here to serve as a transition between her childhood and her adolescence.)

Several months later, the family travels to Dakota Territory by train. This is the family's first train trip and they are excited by the novelty of this newfangled mode of transportation. In a few hours they cover the distance it would take a horse and wagon a day to cover. Upon arrival, they go to the hotel to eat and await Pa.

Pa arrives with the wagon later that afternoon, and the next day they leave for the railroad camp. There, Laura meets her cousin Lena (daughter of Aunt Docia), and she and Laura bunk together for the time that the Ingalls family spends with them. Laura and Lena play together when they are done with their chores, which range from collecting laundry cleaned by a neighbor to milking cows; Laura rides Lena's pony, the first time she has ever ridden a horse.

Winter approaches, and the railroad workers take down the cabins for transport and go back East. With no homestead claim and no house yet built, Pa supposes they will have to return East for the winter as well. Fortunately, the surveyors, who had planned to stay in their home all winter, are called back East and ask the Ingalls to stay in their house in exchange for keeping watch over their surveying equipment.

Laura feels that no one could be as excited as she to be moving into a beautiful house, well stocked with provisions. Winter comes, and one night when Pa is playing the fiddle, Mr. and Mrs. Boast arrive in the middle of a snowstorm; they are migrating West but were caught by the bad weather. They stay past Christmas, and at New Year's the Ingalls visit the Boasts' small home for dinner. To pass time, Mrs. Boast shares her collection of newspapers with Laura and shows the Ingalls family how to make a what-not. Later, Reverend Alden unexpectedly visits, and upon seeing Mary, informs Ma that there is a college for the blind in Iowa. Laura resolves that she will eventually teach school and help send Mary to college.

During a clear night that winter, Laura and Carrie go for a moonlight walk and encounter a wolf. Frightened, they race back to the surveyors' house. When Pa goes out the next day to hunt the wolf, he discovers the perfect section of land for their homestead claim. He decides he will set out for the land office in Brookings as soon as possible to file on it before someone else does. However, when the weather improves, his departure is delayed by a rush of men moving west who stop at the surveyors' house on the way to their own claims. Ma and Pa decide to charge each man 25 cents for a meal and 25 cents for a place to sleep. The money they make from the spring rush eventually adds up to over $42 and is later used to help send Mary to college.

Pa finally decides to set out for the land office despite the stream of strange men coming by the house, and asks Mr. and Mrs. Boast to stay with Ma and the girls while he is gone. In Brookings, Pa overhears two men who plan to file on his desired section of land. The two men plan to fight Pa, but Mr. Edwards (an old friend of the Ingalls' from Indian Territory) sails in and holds them back while Pa files on his claim.

Pa uses leftover lumber from the railroad to build a store building in the new town, because the surveyors are returning and will need the house in which the Ingalls have been living. Pa figures he can sell the store building quickly as the town grows up around it. However, after hearing word of claim jumpers nearby, Pa quickly builds a one-room shanty on their claim and moves his family into it. On moving day, Laura sees Almanzo Wilder for the first time, driving a team of horses with his brother to their claims south of town. She wishes for beautiful horses of her own someday. The book ends as the Ingalls family settles into the snug claim shanty on their new land.

Historical background

To encourage settlement of the mid-west part of the United States, Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862. This act divided unsettled land into sections, and heads of households could file a claim for very little money. A section was 1-square-mile (2.6 km²), and a claim was ¼ of a section. 36 sections made a township. A section was identified by three numbers, for example NW quarter of Section 18, Township 109, Range 38. By paying $10.00 plus other filing fees, a man could get 160 acres (0.65 km²) of land for his use if he could live on it for 5 years and not give up to go back east. The Ingalls staked one claim near Plum Creek. In the spring of 1880, Charles Ingalls filed a homestead claim south of De Smet for the NE quarter of Section 3, Township 110, Range 56.

A few details in By the Shores of Silver Lake differ from accounts in more autobiographical sources. For example, it seems that Laura never actually visited the railroad grade, but in the book she went to the grade with her father. Wilder also wrote that the surveyors left food in the house when they moved in and let the Ingalls have it. However, other sources are contradictory and it is unclear whether Pa had to buy the supplies for winter.

At age 18 Laura married Almanzo Wilder. A year of Almanzo’s childhood in rural New York is memorialized in her second book, Farmer Boy. Together they homesteaded and raised horses, which Almanzo loved. They had one daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and lost a son in infancy. Rose grew up to become an author, among other things. Laura wrote over the years in the form of essays and articles for newspapers and magazines, mostly articles related to homesteading. Laura wrote out the manuscript for each of her books by hand, and Rose helped her type and edit them. The well-known illustrations by Garth Williams appeared in the revised editions about 20 years later.

The bodies of Charles, Caroline, Mary, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls, and the unnamed infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder are buried in the De Smet Cemetery. Laura and Almanzo Wilder stayed briefly in Westville, Florida in the 1890s.

Modern Influence

The Surveyors' House is a Laura Ingalls Wilder historic site in De Smet, South Dakota

Today, De Smet, South Dakota, attracts many fans with its historic sites from the books By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. From 1879 to 1894 the Ingalls family lived in De Smet. The family homestead, a house in town built by Charles Ingalls, the Brewster School where Laura taught, and the surveyors' house the family lived in between 1879 and 1880 are open to visitors.

In addition to the Little House books, four series of books expand the Little House series to include five generations of Laura Ingalls Wilder's family. The success of the Little House series has produced many related books including two series ("Little House Chapter Books" and "My First Little House Books") that present the original stories in condensed and simplified form for younger readers. Additional series have been written to tell the stories of Laura’s mother, “The Caroline Years,” her grandmother, "The Charlotte Years," her great-grandmother, “The Martha Years,” and her daughter, “The Rose Years.” There are also Little House-themed craft, music, and cookbooks.

The Little House on the Prairie television series was loosely based on the Little House books. A total of 203 episodes were produced and originally aired on NBC from 1974 to 1982. Pa was played by Michael Landon, Ma by Karen Grassle, Laura by Melissa Gilbert, Mary by Melissa Sue Anderson, and Carrie by identical twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. The series remains popular in syndication and has been released on DVD.

References

• Anderson, William. A Little House Reader. New York: Harper Collins publishers. 1998. ISBN 0-06-026394-6.

• Anderson, William. Laura’s Album: a remembrance scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1998. ISBN 0-06-027842-0.

• Anderson, William. Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story. Burr Oak, Iowa. The Laura IngallsWilder Park and Museum. 2001. ISBN 0-9610088-9-X

• Anderson, William. Prairie Girl: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 2004. ISBN 0-06-028974-0

• Anderson, William. The Little House Guidebook. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1996. ISBN 0-06-446177-7

• Garson, Eugenia and Haufrecht, Herbert. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook: Favorite Songs from the Little House Books. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books. 1996. ISBN 0-06-027036-5

• Gormley, Beatrice. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Young Pioneer. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. 2001. ISBN 0-689-83924-3
• Miller, John E. Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend. University of Missouri Press. Columbia, Missouri. 1998. ISBN 0-8262-1167-4

• Wade, Mary Dodson. Homesteading on the Plains. Millbrook Press. Brookfield, Connecticut. 1997. ISBN 0-7613-0218-2.

• Wallner, Alexandera. Laura Ingalls Wilder. New York: Holiday House inc. 1997. ISBN 0-8234-1314-4.

• Ward, S. Meet Laura Ingalls Wilder. New York: Rosen Publishing Group. 2001. ISBN 0-8239-5712-8

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Dear Laura: Letters From Children To Laura Ingalls Wilder. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1996. ISBN 0-06-026274-5

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1953. ISBN 0-06-026430-6

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls. A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Journey Across America. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 2006. ISBN 0-06-072491-9

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls. On the Shores of Silver Lake. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1967. ISBN 0-06-026416-0.

External links

• Rock Pickle Publishing – a Historic Children’s Book website with reviews, publication history, photos of original covers, etc.
• Fact and fiction of Laura Ingalls Wilder from A to Z
• List of real life individuals from the Little House books