For generations of Little House on the Prairie fans, the sound of Pa Ingalls playing his fiddle belongs to television.

Michael Landon sits with his family. The music begins. Walnut Grove becomes quiet, and another warm scene unfolds inside the Ingalls home.

But one of the most important musical objects in the Little House story was never a television prop.

It is real.

Charles “Pa” Ingalls’ actual 19th-century fiddle — the instrument Laura Ingalls Wilder heard her own father play when she was a child — still survives.

For roughly 80 years, according to Little House actor Dean Butler, the fiddle has remained in Mansfield, Missouri, where it is preserved at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum at Rocky Ridge Farm.

Now it is preparing to leave Missouri for an extraordinary reason.

On Sept. 11, the instrument is scheduled to travel to Nashville and be played live on the Grand Ole Opry stage for the first time ever.

For fans who grew up with the fictionalized Ingalls family, it will be a rare moment when television nostalgia, American history and a surviving object from Laura’s real childhood all meet on the same stage.

This Is Not Michael Landon’s Television Fiddle

That distinction is what makes the story so unusual.

The fiddle traveling to Nashville was not made for NBC’s Little House on the Prairie.

It did not come from the show’s prop department.

It belonged to the real Charles Ingalls.

Laura repeatedly remembered her father’s music in the autobiographical stories that ultimately became the Little House books. His fiddle playing was woven into her memories of childhood, family life and the difficult years the Ingalls spent moving across the American frontier.

The instrument itself survived.

Today, it is displayed at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, the Missouri property where Laura and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, settled and where she later wrote the books that made her family famous.

Butler emphasized just how direct the connection is while discussing the upcoming Nashville event with PEOPLE.

Alison Arngrim, remembered by millions of television viewers as Nellie Oleson, put it even more plainly: this is Charles Ingalls’ actual fiddle from the 1800s — the one Laura heard while growing up.

That gives the instrument a significance no replica can reproduce.

After Decades in Missouri, It Is Going to Nashville

The fiddle’s upcoming journey is connected to a Little House on the Prairie cast reunion taking place in Nashville from Sept. 11 through Sept. 13.

Most of the reunion activities have moved to the W Nashville hotel, but the Friday-night event at the Grand Ole Opry remains unchanged.

That Friday event will bring together two different pieces of Little House history.

One is Charles Ingalls’ fiddle.

The other is Johnny Cash.

The gathering will commemorate 50 years since Cash and June Carter Cash appeared in the Season 3 premiere, “The Collection.” Cast members will join country performers for the Opry celebration, which is also expected to include appearances by members of the Cash and Carter families.

Then Pa’s real fiddle will enter the story.

The official reunion site says the instrument will travel from Rocky Ridge Farm and be played live on the Grand Ole Opry stage for the first time.

For Butler, the significance is easy to understand.

He predicted Little House fans would react strongly not only to seeing the fiddle, but to actually hearing it.

Laura Really Heard This Instrument

That is the detail that separates the event from an ordinary television reunion.

Someone in the Opry audience will hear music produced by the same physical instrument Laura Ingalls Wilder heard more than a century ago.

Laura’s memories of her father’s music became an important part of her writing.

The fiddle appears throughout the Little House world because music was not simply decorative in her recollections. It was tied to family life — something Charles could use to entertain his children, lift spirits and create a feeling of home even when the family’s surroundings were difficult or uncertain.

Historical material about the fiddle confirms that Charles’ music was part of Laura’s actual childhood, rather than an invention created for the novels or television adaptation.

The NBC series later transformed that memory into something millions of viewers could recognize visually.

But the artifact came first.

Long before Michael Landon portrayed Charles Ingalls, the real Pa was holding this fiddle.

Johnny Cash’s Connection Makes the Opry Setting Even More Fitting

The Nashville celebration also reaches back to one of the television series’ most memorable guest appearances.

In “The Collection,” Johnny Cash played Caleb Hodgekiss, an ex-convict who takes the place of an injured minister while initially planning to exploit the congregation. June Carter Cash played his wife, Mattie.

According to Butler, Michael Landon met Cash at a party and personally invited him onto the series.

The episode was then written specifically for Johnny and June.

Butler believes the story fit Cash particularly well because Caleb is deeply flawed but ultimately capable of redemption — qualities that echoed themes Cash frequently explored in his music and public persona.

The Nashville event will honor that 1976 appearance, with John Carter Cash, Ana Cristina Cash and Carlene Carter among the announced performers.

The connection between the Opry, the Cash family and the Ingalls fiddle therefore feels unusually natural.

Country music and Little House share many of the same themes: family, hardship, faith, community, loss and perseverance.

The Fiddle Has Been Played Before — But This Stage Is New

There is an important distinction in describing the event.

The fiddle has not remained completely silent for eight decades.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder museum has allowed it to be played on special occasions in Missouri, including events connected with the historic site. A 2016 account, for example, documented plans to play Pa’s fiddle during the opening of the museum’s newer facility.

What is historic about Sept. 11 is its destination.

According to the official reunion announcement, this will be the first time Charles Ingalls’ actual fiddle is played live on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

That distinction makes the moment no less remarkable.

The object is leaving the museum environment where fans normally encounter it and entering one of America’s most famous musical institutions.

The Real Little House Is Still There

For television audiences, Little House on the Prairie may begin with Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert and the image of the Ingalls children running through the grass.

But behind the series is a much older story.

Laura Ingalls Wilder lived it before she wrote it.

Her father played music before an actor recreated those scenes.

And the fiddle that accompanied some of those childhood memories still exists.

Soon it will leave its longtime Missouri home temporarily and travel to Nashville.

On Sept. 11, fans will not merely see something inspired by Charles Ingalls.

They will hear the actual instrument Laura heard as a girl.

More than a century after Pa played for his family — and decades after television turned those memories into one of America’s most beloved family dramas — his fiddle is preparing for a new stage.

This time, it will be the Grand Ole Opry.