High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was first published in 1939 and is the fifth of nine books written in her Little House on the Prairie series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book begins when Laura is twelve years old and the family moves to what will become De Smet, South Dakota, from Plum Creek, Minnesota. In this novel, Laura`s age spans from almost thirteen to thirteen. After moving to the Dakota Territory, the family first lives with relatives in a railroad camp, where Pa works as the storekeeper. They spend the winter in the surveyors` house to watch the equipment, and in the spring Pa gets a claim. While he is building a shelter there, the family lives in town in a house Pa built of leftover railroad lumber. As soon as the claim shanty is in place, the family moves into it, although they return to town during the winter until the claim shanty is fully weatherized some five years in the future.