Making a Prairie Ladder: Learning Knots and Resourcefulness

When families set out across the American prairie in the 1800s, they carried only what they could fit in a wagon. This meant everyday items had to be repaired, repurposed, or made from scratch, including something as essential as a wooden ladder. For students exploring frontier life, making a prairie ladder offers a wonderful opportunity to study resourcefulness, creativity, and the practical skills that families like the Ingalls relied on.

Read More! Click here if you’d like to learn a bit more about our plans for this Little House on the Prairie Unit study and to see all the bits and pieces in our adventure box.

This post is designed to fit seamlessly into a Little House on the Prairie Unit Study, especially for families who want to explore hands-on history, pioneer craftsmanship, and the art of learning knots. I have included other, safer options at the bottom of the poist, for those who do not want to try making a prairie ladder themselves.

Why Ladders Mattered on the Prairie

Prairie homesteads typically included only one main room, yet families still needed access to lofts, storage spaces, wagons, and outbuildings. A ladder could serve as:

• A way to reach a sleeping loft
• A tool for roof repairs
• A method for retrieving stored food or supplies
• A movable helper for chores around the homestead

Buying a manufactured ladder was rarely an option. Instead, settlers crafted them from whatever scrap wood, branches, or repurposed pieces they had on hand.

Catch Up! If you haven’t read all about our first week on the prairie, I would encourage you to go and read my Little House in the Big woods post. This covers everything we did from making nightdresses, to prairie cooking and making button strings. It also gives you a good idea of everything we achieved with our own little house on the prairie renovations!

What Materials Prairie Families Used

Ladders on the frontier were not precision-engineered pieces of equipment. Instead, they were typically improvised from:

1. Scrap Timber

Leftover boards from wagon repairs or cabin construction were often saved. Even rough-sawn planks could become ladder rails or rungs.

2. Straight Tree Limbs

If lumber wasn’t available, settlers chose the straightest branches they could find, usually ash, oak, or hickory on eastern prairies, and cottonwood or willow farther west.

3. Rope or Twine

When nails were scarce (and they often were), rope lashings and knots replaced metal fasteners.

This combination of resourcefulness and necessity is a powerful element to highlight when teaching students about frontier life.

This week, we have also made some button lamps. Ma made these from lard, metal buttons and scraps of material. We only made some decorative ones, but there are instructions for how to make the historical kind and also how to make safe ones using battery powered candle lights.

Learning Knots: A Key Part of Prairie Ladder Construction

Because nails were valuable, families relied heavily on knots and ropework to secure tools, create handles, bundle firewood, or fasten ladder rungs.

For your Little House on the Prairie Unit Study, introducing knot-tying is a perfect hands-on way to show how settlers solved practical problems.

Kid-Friendly Historical Knots to Explore (Conceptually)

Here are knot types that were commonly used in frontier life, explained at a high level:

• Square Lashing – Used to bind two pieces of wood at a right angle, ideal for temporary structures.
• Clove Hitch – A simple way to anchor a rope to a pole or branch.
• Figure Eight Knot – A strong stopper knot that kept rope from slipping through holes.
• Timber Hitch – Perfect for dragging logs or securing large pieces of wood.

You can incorporate these into your unit study by practicing with yarn, cord, or soft rope—keeping activities age-appropriate and supervised.

How Settlers Assembled a Sturdy Prairie Ladder (Historical Overview)

While each family adapted to their materials and needs, the general frontier method for making a prairie ladder followed a simple philosophy: use what you have, make it strong enough, and repair it when needed. Instead of step-by-step instructions, here’s a safe high-level look at the historical approach:

1. Two long, sturdy pieces of wood formed the ladder’s rails. These could be reclaimed boards or straight branches with the bark shaved off.
2. Rungs were cut from shorter scraps of wood. Settlers chose pieces thick enough to support weight and trimmed them to roughly equal lengths for balance.
3. Holes were carved or notches cut into the side rails so the rungs could sit securely.
4. Knots or lashings were wrapped tightly around each rung to hold it in place when nails weren’t available.
5. The entire structure was tested cautiously before being used for chores, and repairs were made frequently.

This offers students insight into how Praire-era families approached craftsmanship with intention, care, and improvisation.

Incorporating Prairie Ladder Making Into Your Unit Study

Thomas, having learnt lots of knot-making skills last week, went in to this week with the goal of making a ladder from rope and scraps of wood he could find in the garden. Gary was on hand, to ensure each step was done as safely as possible.

He was the first to try it out:

You can see how pleased he is with his efforts. Then, of course, everyone had to have a turn:

And it was even sturdy enough to hold Gary. Thomas was delighted:

Here are ways to bring this topic into your Little House on the Prairie Unit Study—without constructing an actual ladder that someone might try to climb.

Alternative Hands-On, Safe Activities (for those who are not making a prairie ladder for safety reasons)

• Practice knot-tying with rope and sticks laid flat on the ground
• Build a miniature model ladder using popsicle sticks and yarn
• Create a “resourcefulness challenge” where children choose items from a basket of scraps to imagine how they’d use them on the frontier
• Read passages from Little House on the Prairie that describe Pa’s building projects

These hands-on activities spark imagination and historical thinking while keeping safety front and center.

Literature Tie-In: The Ingalls’ Resourcefulness

In Little House on the Prairie and the other books in the series, Pa frequently builds, repairs, or improvises items the family needs. Although a ladder isn’t described in detail, the books highlight:

• Making do with limited tools
• Repurposing scraps
• Working with wood and rope
• Relying on creativity and skill to solve everyday problems

These themes align beautifully with teaching about a homesteader’s mindset.

Discussion Questions for Students

• Why was making a prairie ladder important for families on the frontier?
• What materials would you use if you had no hardware store?
• Which knots seem most useful for everyday life?
• How does learning knots help us understand pioneer problem-solving?
• What would you have used a ladder for if you lived in the Ingalls’ home?

These questions deepen understanding and encourage students to think like young pioneers.

Conclusion

Exploring how frontier families approached making a prairie ladder weaves together creativity, engineering, resourcefulness, and history. By combining knot-tying, hands-on modeling, and literature connections, you can enrich your  Little House on the Prairie Unit Study while helping children understand an essential pioneer skill in a safe, educational way.

 For more activities please do visit my MEGA Little House on the Prairie Unit Study page, which contains all ten weeks of our summer building our own Little House on the Prairie!