TV-MOVIES
This Is Where Little House On The Prairie Was Actually Filmed
By HELEN A. LEE
The book “Little House on the Prairie” was set in Plum Creek, near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, which was where author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived from 1874-1876. However, the series of the same name that aired in 1974-1982 on NBC was shot in California’s Simi Valley at Big Sky Movie Ranch, which is located at 4927 Bennett Road.
While most of the exterior shots were shot on the ranch, they were also filmed in the Red Hills Ranch in Sonora, California; Lake Sherwood, California; and Old Tuscon Studios in Tuscon, Arizona. The interior shots were done on the Paramount Studios lot’s sound stages.
Unfortunately, the actual buildings and structures that made up the Walnut Grove no longer exist, because producer, director, and writer Michael Landon chose to blow up the set for the show’s final TV movie, “The Last Farewell.” Any remaining sets were destroyed by a wildfire in 2003 and then a lightning strike fire in 2019.