There's a Reason Why Walnut Grove Explodes at the End of 'Little House on the Prairie'

When Little House on the Prairie ended, three TV movies followed it to serve as a sort of unofficial tenth season and end the series for good. But at the end of the final Little House on the Prairie movie, they blow up Walnut Grove. Some viewers still don't understand the reason behind that, especially since the real-life location was blown up, too.

Little House: The Last Farewell premiered in 1984. Because special effects in movies and TV shows, and yes, TV movies, had a long way to go from there, no special visual effects were used to make it seem like the little town from the series blew up. Production actually destroyed much of the set used for Walnut Grove.

But why did they need to blow up Walnut Grove on Little House on the Prairie at all?

Walnut Grove is the name of the little Minnesota town used in the Little House on the Prairie show to give viewers a peek at what life was like in the late 1800s. It serves as the backdrop for the storylines throughout the series and then in the TV movies. Within the show, a storyline was crafted in Little House: The Last Farewell in order to destroy the town.

A wealthy businessman buys the entire town and plans to build a railroad going through it. In an effort to ruin his plans and essentially not go down without a fight, the Ingalls and the rest of the town decide to blow up their homes and most of the properties to ruin the tycoon's plans. Because they have to leave anyway, in blowing up Walnut Grove, they also leave behind rubble in their wake.

Outside of the series, most of the actual sets used for Walnut Grove were blown up, too. Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about TV dad and director, producer, and writer of the show, Michael Landon's decision to blow everything up. She said that Michael wanted to make sure other shows or movies didn't reuse the sets from the show. To ensure that, he made plans to destroy it all.

"Those were ours. We built them," Melissa told the outlet. "I mean, I had so many major life experiences in and around all of those buildings, as did everyone on the cast and crew. That place was sacred to us in a big way."

She also shared that the actors were not present for the actual explosions of the real-life sets on Little House.

Without the original set from the original Little House series, any other versions set in Walnut Grove have to rely solely on recreations. That shouldn't be too hard for Netflix if its planned reboot comes to fruition.

In July 2025, Netflix's Tudum shared details on the cast for a Little House reboot. At this time, however, a premiere date has not been announced.