‘Little House on The Prairie’ The reason Walnut Grove was blown up.

Little House on the Prairie starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. Longtime fans of the program about pioneer life in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, have enjoyed reruns on streaming and retro networks. There are mixed feelings about the series finale The Last Farewell.

The Little House television series was loosely based on the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Most of the storylines came from the creative genius of Michael Landon and were not true to what actually happened to the real Ingalls family.

One example is Charles and Carolyn Ingalls adopting Albert. The real Laura Ingalls Wilder did not have a brother. The television series began with a two-hour made-for-TV movie titled Little House on the Prairie, which aired in March of 1974.

.The first episode of the television series premiered on the NBC network on September 11, 1974, and ran for nine seasons. It last aired on May 10, 1982. Michael Landon and Karen Grassle, who portrayed Charles and Caroline Ingalls, left the series during the 1982-1983 season.

Landon continued to work behind the scenes, and new episodes were broadcast with a different title, Little House: A New Beginning. It all came to an end ten years after it began in March of 1984 with a two-hour episode titled The Last Farewell. The finale came when the Walnut Grove residents blew up their homes in protest of the company that gained their land in a shady deal.

Everyone left town by marching down the road and singing Onward Christian Soldiers. A third movie titled Bless the Dear Children aired nine months after the series finale, as a Christmas film in December 1984.

If you have wondered why such a drastic measure was taken to end the series, there is a popular theory that continues to be voiced. Allegedly, series creator Michael Landon did not want anyone else using the buildings and items from Walnut Grove once the show went off the air.

Melissa Gilbert shares this sentiment in the above video. Some have said that Landon was angry because ratings for the hit show had dropped, and NBC canceled it. There is a third and more practical reason for the way the town was destroyed. Producer Kent McCrary explained it all, and you can read what he said word for word at this link.

Landon may not have desired for anyone else to use the buildings and NBC could have cancelled the series because of low ratings, but neither is the reason the town was blown up. McCrary was leasing the land from Newhall Land and Development.

The agreement was that when the series was over, the land must be returned to its original state. It would have taken a lot of time and money to dismantle every single home and business in the roughly two-mile area that encompassed Walnut Grove.

There were many beloved locations in Walnut Grove. It would have taken long hours and a lot of manpower to dismantle them on by one. Creative genius Michael Landon pitched the idea that everything except the church and the Ingslls home should be blown up. This way, all that would be needed was for someone to clear out the debris.

In the final moments of the show, Reverend Alden goes to the church and rings the bell. As the townspeople leave, they all drive or walk by the little house, where rabbits are running through the yard.

Sadly, the two remaining structures that Landon wanted to preserve were destroyed by wildfires in 2003 and 2018. As of this writing, all nine seasons of Little House on the Prairie and the movies, including The Last Farewell, are available on Peacock.