Pa's real fiddle will leave its museum home for a night at the Grand Ole Opry, where Matt Combs will play it for the first time ever on Friday, September 11, 2026, during the Little House on the Prairie Cast Reunion. Combs will not walk out alone. His two daughters will be on stage with him as the instrument tied to Charles Ingalls and Laura Ingalls Wilder reaches a worldwide audience.
The moment is drawing fresh attention because the reunion runs September 11 through 13, 2026, at W Nashville, with a full cast night at the Opry built into the three-day gathering. Dean Butler has described the fiddle as having been in Mansfield, Missouri since it came on a covered wagon from the Dakotas to Laura's house, and said it will be played on the stage for the first time ever at the Grand Ole Opry. He also said the performance should not be underestimated for Little House fans who will hear the instrument in front of a worldwide audience that night.
That audience will be hearing more than a novelty. Pa's fiddle now lives at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum at Rocky Ridge Farm, where it is played publicly about once a year during Wilder Days. Taking a museum-held artifact that is usually heard only in that setting and placing it on the Opry stage gives the reunion its sharpest edge. The instrument is still part of living memory, but it is also protected history, which is why its appearance on a global stage carries more weight than a routine tribute performance.
Combs is a fitting player for that handoff. He anchored the Pa's Fiddle recording project, which reconstructed the 127 songs Wilder documented in her books, and his role connects the stage performance to the work of preserving the music behind the story. The Opry evening is also a 50th anniversary tribute, linking the fiddle's debut to the legacy of The Collection, the Season 3 premiere of Little House on the Prairie that first aired on September 27, 1976 and featured Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.
That anniversary connection reaches back to a moment when Michael Landon met Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash at a party and invited them to come on the show. Johnny Cash portrayed ex-convict Caleb Hodgekiss in The Collection, and June Carter Cash appeared with him in the episode. Alison Arngrim said this reunion also marks the first time the cast has mounted what she called a really musical extravaganza.
The clearest next step is the one already fixed on the calendar: the cast reunion from September 11 through 13, 2026, with the Opry performance on the first night. If the event unfolds as planned, Pa's fiddle will move from once-a-year public use to a one-night appearance before a far larger crowd, and that is what makes this reunion matter now.
