Abe Lincoln’s Birthplace
Good ol’ Honest Abe. We took a trip down to Hodgenville, Kentucky (about 50-ish miles south of Louisville) where Abraham Lincoln was born. This helped fulfill two things I’m working on:
1. Go to every state park in the country.
2. A section of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die – US & Canada version.
First off, there is not much to see. Or do. There is a vistor’s center with a small gift shop, a replica of what they believe the inside of his cabin looked like, and a film about Abe Lincoln’s lineage in Kentucky. Then you go outdoors to his memorial, which houses another replica of the cabin he lived in. There are 56 steps leading up to the memorial which represent the 56 years of his life. Interestingly, the memorial was built in part by Teddy Roosevelt and was funded in part by Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain.) Then you head over to Sinking Springs (a hole in the ground) where the Lincoln family got their drinking water. A few miles down the road, you can visit the Lincoln Museum. This contains several different scenes of his life acted out by wax figures.
Not the most exciting state park I hope to go to, but an interesting memorial to a great president, nonetheless. And it was a BEAUTIFUL day for late January. I actually got to hear a bird chirp, can you believe it? Those of you in California or Florida can, I’m sure.
Posted on February 4, 2011, in Adventure, Travel and tagged 000 Places to See Before You Die, 1, Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln, Louisville, Park. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
The sinking hole looked kinda cool, I guess. Yeah, I hate when I make a point to visit a memorial/historic site and there really isn’t anything to it.
Being the director of a Museum for the last 2 years, I like that most people have LOW expectations for our museum and 99% are pleasantly surprised, usually spending 45 minutes to an hour to look at all of our exhibits (the other 1% take to the interwebs to talk about how there isn’t anything to it and they only spent 5 minutes and saw everything-you can’t please everyone.)
Maybe if you had low expectations then it would have been better?
Oh Abe Abe Abe. I have a slight obsession with him, to the point I want to name one of my future boys after him. Visiting the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is on my list, but I have no interest in going to his birth place, especially since it’s not even the real deal.
I’m originally from Illinois, so I’ve hit up all the Lincoln sites there (they have a replica of the log cabin in the Lincoln Presidential Library too. Apparently replica log cabins are all the rage).
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