‘Little House on the Prairie’ cabin in Kansas to be rebuilt

WICHITA, Kan. — The deteriorating log cabin at the “Little House on the Prairie’’ site in Kansas is expected to soon get a makeover. The current cabin was re-created and built near Independence in 1977, during the peak of popularity for a television series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books centred on her childhood.

Wilder spent a year with her family at the Kansas site in 1869, the Wichita Eagle reported.

Siblings Bill Kurtis and Jean Schodorf, who own the cabin, said four decades of weather in Kansas has worn down the house. They want to rebuild it and add a barn.

“We will be using any of the materials that are salvageable for the new cabin,’’ Schodorf said last week. “But really, that may be just the windows, floor and maybe the fireplace chimney.’’

She said that more than 20,000 people visit the site each year. But with the current cabin drooping and logs weakening, its interior is barred from the public for safety reasons.

The cabin is scheduled for construction in October and November.