Photo courtesy of Bill Richards Bill Richards has been involved with the Wilder Pageant in many roles though the years

WALNUT GROVE — While most local towns in Southwest Minnesota have a town celebration, Walnut Grove has a unique claim to it, by putting on the Wilder Pageant every July on the banks of Plum Creek.

The pageant is centered on Laura Ingalls Wilder, her family, and the books she wrote about her experience living in the Walnut Grove area. 

The Wilder family moved to an area just north of Walnut Grove in 1874, when Laura was about 7, staying for about five years before her father took a job in the eastern part of the Dakota Territory. In the 1930s and early 1940s Laura published eight “Little House” books, one of which heavily relies on her experience living near Walnut Grove. 

100 years after the Wilder family’s departure and in the midst of the Little House on the Prairie television drama craze, then SSU student James Merchant wrote a script for a play about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family living in Walnut Grove. The show ran in July 1978, in a packed too warm auditorium and has run every summer  since–though now they perform outside.

Bill Richards, long time pageant aficionado, as frequent director, a designer, sound and lights operator, and so forth, shares that while the story does highlight what’s portrayed primarily in Laura’s book On the Banks of Plum Creek, they’ve tried to expand the story to include more Walnut Grove history. 

 “I think it’s very important to understand that…they were not the only people here,” shares Richards. “They interacted with people, and there were events that shaped how Laura wrote, and we try to present that as well.”

The cast can run anywhere from 30-80 people, most from around the local area, but some coming from across the country to fulfill a lifelong dream of participating. The storyline is tweaked accordingly to accommodate different cast sizes. 

“And every year there would be scenes we would throw in, try out and pull back out if we didn’t like them or they did.” Richard shares. 

But for many years the script remained the same, then, in 2012, Richards and some others reworked it a bit: “It needed freshening up, ( there were) some issues with it, as far as I was concerned, it didn’t have enough parts for children.” 

In 2020-2021, it again got a revamp and as Richards says “we rewrote the show into a series of three shows to actually expand the whole Ingalls story” which is how the show is today.

Bill Richards has been involved in the pageant since he was a 26 year old, recent college graduate and he first moved to Walnut Grove.

He applied to be the principal at Walnut Grove in 1978. During his interview they saw his speech and theater degree and asked if he’d be willing to direct this new show they had going on. That summer, a few weeks prior, the first pageant had been produced in the auditorium, but they were thinking long term possibilities “They hired me only because of my theater degree, not me” said Richards..

Well, if it was “only” for his background in theater, the school and town got their money’s worth, because he didn’t retire as the principal until 2016 and now, 47 years later, Bill Richards is still helping out with this “long dance with the pageant.” 

For Richards, this town celebration is also more personal–it’s where he met his wife, Tina. 

“She was an artist and teacher, so she was helping out with the pageant and we got to know each other, and one thing led to another, and by golly, that was good.”

Before coming to Walnut Grove and he started preparing to direct the pageant, he had never heard of the book series or of Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

When asked how long it took to fall in love with the story and the town his answer is simple: “As soon as I fell in love with my wife. She worked on the pageant, I worked on the pageant, and the rest is history.” 

He’s directed the show on and off throughout the 40 plus years the pageant has been running, but now his daughter Erin Altmann has taken up the mantle.

His role now, he shares is as the “gopher”; “If they need something, I go for it. So I help them write grants. (And)  I work mostly backstage.”

Richard says between those helping with concessions, parking, advertising, set construction, the actors, and tech support, it takes about 100 people to put on the show: “It’s quite the remarkable undertaking for such a small town.”

This coming together of the community is exactly what Richard hopes people take away from the show. 

“Most people focus on (how) we’re celebrating Laura…but we’re trying to celebrate the pioneer spirit” Richard says. “That’s more the message we hope to convey in the show…everybody, at some point in their life, you’ve got terrible things that you either have to get through or give up.And a lot of people are giving up. And the thing is that you need to rely on your friends and your family and some kind of faith.”

Richards has continued to put his faith in his community, and has found in return, that community supporting him and his family; the pageant is just one beautiful, fun avenue for it.