Lincoln Revisited

Has anyone ever tallied how many monuments and memorials have been erected to honor Abraham Lincoln?  Surely there must be hundreds, or more.  Not that he doesn’t deserve every one of them.  Several of these memorials are even units of the National Park Service.  Every state where Lincoln ever lived wants to claim him as a native son. 

Jane and I visited the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Indiana, and Tim, Manny and I visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., certainly the most well-known of all the memorials.  Today, Tim and I found one more, the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

This park focuses on Lincoln’s early life in Kentucky and is located on the Sinking Springs Farm where he was born in 1809.  The first memorial ever built to honor Lincoln is the centerpiece of the park, and the memorial building protects the birth site.  The memorial was established by the Lincoln Farm Association to preserve what was then thought to be the original Lincoln cabin.  Later research revealed that the cabin was not the one where Lincoln was born. 

Memorial Building

The marble and granite neoclassical memorial, designed by John Russell Pope, was dedicated in 1911 and houses what the National Park Service now considers to be a “symbolic cabin.”  The memorial is a beautiful structure that sits atop a hill approached by fifty-six granite steps, one for each year of Lincoln’s life.  Also on the site is the Sinking Spring, from which the farm received its name.

Symbolic Cabin

Tim at Sinking Spring

Unlike our visit to the Lincoln Memorial, we had this park almost to ourselves.  It provided more of an opportunity to contemplate Lincoln’s humble beginnings and what he was able to accomplish.

We drove south through the Kentucky countryside on our way to Mammoth Cave National Park.  Today was for gathering information about the various cave tours.  We’ll be back tomorrow to explore the underground.