What time period is Little House on the Prairie set in? The Netflix reboot starts earlier than the original show ever did
Netflix's new Little House on the Prairie arrived on July 9, 2026 — eight episodes, all at once — and shot to #2 in the US within 24 hours. If you grew up on the NBC version, the first thing you'll notice is that this isn't the Walnut Grove you remember. It's set before all of that.
The short answer
The Netflix series takes place in the 1870s, at the very start of the Ingalls family 's journey west. Season 1 opens with Charles (Luke Bracey) and Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald) packing up their daughters Laura (Alice Halsey) and Mary (Skywalker Hughes) — plus their dog, Jack — and leaving Wisconsin by covered wagon, eventually settling near Independence, Kansas, on Osage land. Laura is eight years old when the story begins.
Why that's earlier than the 1974 show
The original NBC series, which ran nine seasons from 1974 to 1983 with Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, planted the family in Walnut Grove, Minnesota from week one and stayed there for nearly a decade.
Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys) went back further, adapting Laura Ingalls Wilder's third book — the one actually called Little House on the Prairie — which covers the Kansas years the weekly series skipped past. The real Ingalls family lived through this chapter around 1869 to 1871.
Here's how the timeline stacks up:
- The Big Woods, Wisconsin — where the Netflix series begins, with the family leaving their comfortable home behind.
- Independence, Kansas — where season 1 settles, in Osage territory, and where the show expands the story to include Osage characters and Black homesteaders like Dr. George Tann, based on a real frontier doctor.
- Walnut Grove, Minnesota — the original show's home turf, and where the reboot is headed next.
What about season 2?
Already confirmed — Netflix renewed the show before season 1 even premiered. Season 2 will adapt On the Banks of Plum Creek, the book that brings the family to Walnut Grove. In other words, the reboot is only now arriving where the 1974 series started.
How different is it, really?
More expansive, for one. The real Charles and Caroline Ingalls moved their family roughly a dozen times during Laura's childhood, and this version — filmed on the prairies around Winnipeg, Manitoba — plans to follow those journeys rather than staying put. As for the tone debate that flared up when the reboot was announced, original star Melissa Gilbert settled it herself on social media in 2025, responding to claims Netflix would "wokeify" the story:
"TV doesn't get too much more 'woke' than what we did," Gilbert wrote, pointing to the original's storylines about racism, addiction, and abuse.