From 1928 to 1936, after living abroad for several years, Rose Wilder Lane returned to her childhood home on Rocky Ridge Farm and, with proceeds from her writings, built her parents Laura and Almanzo a modern house, presenting them the keys at Christmas while she continued to live in the white farmhouse. By 1936 Rose had left Missouri for New York City, and her parents then returned to their original home; this part of the farm was later sold. In 1990, the Wilder Association purchased the property, and after restoration, the house was dedicated in 1997. While living here in the Rock House, Laura Ingalls Wilder began writing the Little House books that made her famous, completing Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairie, and On the Banks of Plum Creek in pencil on five-cent tablets. During the same period, Rose Wilder Lane also wrote extensively, including her best known novel Let the Hurricane Roar, first published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post in 1932 and later becoming a best selling book during the Depression years.