‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Melissa Gilbert Reveals Which Props She Kept From Her Time on the Show

If you’re Melissa Gilbert, which mementos would you take from Little House on the Prairie to represent your time on the classic show?

Gilbert, who portrayed Laura Ingalls Wilder, wrote about the souvenirs she selected in her “My Prairie Cookbook: Memories and Frontier Food From My Little House to Yours.” She shared recipes and recollections from her days on Little House on the Prairie. Gilbert even posted 75 images from her show scrapbook.

So which items did she keep from the series?

“I have Pa’s fiddle,” Gilbert wrote. Then she listed more items. “My script from the pilot, my red dress from the end credits, Victor French’s (Isaiah Edwards) hat and shirt and shoes.”

Remember the red dress? Here’s a video that closed Little House on the Prairie to prod your memory.

Little House on the Prairie Star Recently Wrote Another Book

And Gilbert also added some more items to her Little House collection. She kept a sign that said “The Wilder’s Room & Board sign.” And she also wanted the sheet music for the opening theme song. David Rose wrote the now iconic song. And he autographed the sheet music.

Gilbert now is 58. She’s the mother of two and has five step children. And she recently released another book, Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered. She and her husband, Timothy Busfield, moved from from NYC to Upstate New York, specifically the Catskill Mountains. The couple bought a fixer upper cabin and renovated it. And that’s what Gilbert wrote about in her book. She said her new outdoor lifestyle was inspired by the one she enacted in the TV show. Technically, Upstate New York is a long way from the Midwestern prairie in Minnesota, where Little House on the Prairie was set. But it had the same vibe.

“When I was a little girl growing up on the Little House on the Prairie set, I had so much fun whenever we would film outside,” Gilbert said in an interview with Fox News. “There were other kids to play with and lots of games we could do. They always had a lot of activities for us on set.”

She added: “And there were animals everywhere,” she continued. “I think everyone on the set had a dog, and they would all bring their dogs to the set. We had cows, chickens, horses and even guest animals. I remember for one episode we had a baby raccoon.”

And she says she’s content with the unexpected twist her life took her in middle age, which feels a lot like where she started way back in the day.