For generations of readers in the United States and around the world, Laura Ingalls Wilder, at once the spunky young heroine and the author of the beloved “Little House” books, defined the American pioneer experience. Selling millions of copies in dozens of languages since publication in the 1930s and 1940s, the eight-volume series recounts Wilder's childhood in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains during the 1870s and 1880s. As she described, sometimes in exhaustive detail, the dwellings her family built with each successive move, Wilder domesticated the frontier experience through the iconic “Little House.” Over time, dedicated readers sought out the places where Wilder and her family had lived, and local residents often capitalized on the “Little House” connection by creating memorials. Today, tens of thousands of readers annually flock to these locations. Searching for an authentic “Little House” experience, fans can stand “on the banks of Plum Creek,” watch pageants recreating scenes from the books, view artifacts that belonged to the Ingalls and Wilder families, and, of course, tour the “Little Houses” (some of which are replicas). Drawing on her own experiences as a devoted fan and frequent visitor to the sites, McClellan will analyze the phenomenon of “Little House” heritage tourism for what it tells us about the power of historic places to amplify and complicate our understanding of the past.