Pageant on the Prairie

After postponing our trip once due to extreme heat, we were thankful to have it work out the following weekend - the last weekend of pageant performances. The city of De Smet puts on an annual Laura Ingalls Wilder pageant, putting together a show from segments of a different book each year. This year, the 40th anniversary of the pageant, they told parts of the story from "By the Shores of Silver Lake."

Held outside in the prairie sun, the seating area was already nearly filled when we arrived. Mothers and daughters walked hand in hand in prairie dresses, children ran around excitedly and some families picnicked at their seats. Gretchen found us a great spot on the ground in the front row and we spread out our blankets while the kids danced to the music playing.

To be honest, the pageant itself wasn't what I was hoping for. The acting was pretty bad - chopping, weird pauses, little emotion. And there may have even been a fiddle that sounded like a harmonica.

Thankfully, the set was nice, the costumes beautiful and the setting spectacular. We browsed a gift shop during the intermission, enjoyed the cool breeze that came with the evening and watched the sunset on the prairie. For those reasons alone it was worth going.