Leaving Wisconsin

Leaving Wisconsin is the founding act of Little House on the Prairie, the moment the Ingalls family turns its back on the only home it has known and commits itself to the open, unsettled country of the West. The departure is not a casual move but a deliberate rejection of one way of life in favor of another. Pa, who has grown restless in a state he finds too crowded, convinces Ma that they must go now, before the ice breaks on the Mississippi River and blocks their passage. The family sells their little house, packs their wagon with everything they can carry, and drives away into the dark of an early morning, leaving behind grandparents, aunts, and uncles who have come to say good-bye. They never see that little house again.

Reasons for the Departure

The decision to leave Wisconsin grows out of Pa's deep dissatisfaction with the changes that settlement has brought to the country. He tells Ma that there are too many people in Wisconsin now, and that wild animals do not stay in a country where there are so many people. Pa does not want to live in a place where game has been driven away; he likes a country where the animals live without fear, where he can see them looking at him in the forest and eating fruit from the trees. His vision of the West is of a land that is flat, with grass growing thick and high, where animals run freely and there are no settlers, only Indians. Ma, by contrast, is reluctant. She points out that the weather is cold and their warm house is comfortable, and she asks whether they must go now. Pa's answer is practical: if they are going this year, they must go now, because they cannot cross the Mississippi River after the ice breaks. The urgency of the river crossing, not any enthusiasm on Ma's part, sets the timetable for the family's departure.

The Preparation and the Journey

Once the decision is made, the family moves quickly. Pa sells the little house in Wisconsin, and with Ma's help he makes a canvas cover for their wagon. They put everything into the wagon except their beds, tables, and chairs, which they leave behind because Pa can make new ones out West. The morning of their departure is still dark when Ma gently shakes Mary and Laura awake and helps them dress warmly by the light of the fire. They put on warm dresses and heavy coats, and then the family drives away, with Pa's gun placed inside the wagon where he can reach it quickly and his fiddle packed safely between two blankets. Their dog Jack goes under the wagon, and they set off. The journey itself is long and monotonous. They travel across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, with Jack walking along under the wagon the whole way. Pa sits up front holding the reins, Ma sits next to him straight and quiet, and Baby Carrie sleeps in soft blankets in the back. When they cross into Kansas, they find an endless flat land covered with tall grass, and day after day they see nothing but grass and a big sky. Laura, tired of sitting, asks if she can get out and run behind the wagon, but Ma refuses with a single word, and Laura understands that she should stay quiet.

The Promise of the New Land

When the family finally reaches the High Prairie and builds their new house, Pa's vision of the West seems to be coming true. He tells Ma that before winter comes he will make a wood floor and a solid roof, but that must wait until he finishes helping Mr Edwards and building a stable. He declares that they are going to do well there and be happy for the rest of their lives. Laura likes the place too, with its great big sky, its winds, and its wide land, everything so clean and big and wonderful. The family's first supper in the new house, a prairie chicken cooked by Ma in the new fireplace, tastes so good to Laura that she sits up straight on her log chair and uses her knife and fork nicely, as Ma has taught her, feeling happy to be in a house again. Pa's optimism reaches its peak when he returns from Independence with a plough and seeds. He tells Ma that when the seeds grow in this rich land of theirs, they will be living like kings. The promise of the new land seems boundless, and the family's hard work appears to be rewarded.

The Departure from Indian Territory

The promise of the new land is broken by the same forces that made it possible. Pa learns from Mr Edwards and Mr Scott that the government in Washington is sending soldiers to make the white settlers leave Indian Territory. Pa refuses to wait for the soldiers to take him away like a criminal. He declares that the government told them it was all right to build their houses there, but if now they want them to go, they will go, and they will not wait for the soldiers to make them leave. The family packs the wagon again, leaving behind the plough, the only thing they cannot take. As they drive away from the little log house, Pa looks out over the empty prairie and says that it is a great country, but there will be wild Indians and wolves there for many years. Ma, saddened by the loss of a year of hard work, says gently, "A year gone, Charles." Pa answers with a smile, "What's a year? We have all the time in the world." The family's departure from Indian Territory mirrors their departure from Wisconsin, but with a crucial difference: this time they are not leaving by choice but because the government has decided they must go.

The Meaning of the Departure

The departure from Wisconsin is more than the beginning of a journey; it is the founding gesture of the family's identity as pioneers. Pa's restlessness, his love of wild animals and open land, and his willingness to abandon a comfortable home for an uncertain future define the family's way of life. The departure also reveals the contradictions at the heart of that life. Pa leaves Wisconsin because there are too many people, but he moves to Indian Territory as part of a wave of white settlement that will eventually drive the Indians out. He tells Laura that when white settlers arrive in a place, the Indians have to move away, and that the government makes them. The family's pursuit of freedom is thus bound up with the displacement of others, a fact that the narrative acknowledges but does not dwell on. The departure from Wisconsin sets the pattern for the whole book: the family builds a home, enjoys it briefly, and then is forced to leave it behind. The final departure from Indian Territory repeats the opening action, but with the added weight of loss and the knowledge that the family's dream of a permanent home has failed. Yet Pa's response to that failure, his insistence that they have all the time in the world, captures the spirit of the frontier: the willingness to begin again, no matter how many times the dream is broken.