Welcome
back to our blog on the National Park Service!
In this post we are headed to Kentucky to the birthplace of President
Lincoln.
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| Entrance Sign |
BACKGROUND:
In
February of 1809, in a small log cabin on the frontier of Kentucky, Abraham
Lincoln, arguably the greatest man that has held the office of President of the
United States, was born. Despite his dirt-poor
upbringing and virtually no formal education, Lincoln managed to climb the
ranks of society, from laborer, to lawyer, to Congressman, and eventually the
Presidency. His perseverance to succeed when
his upbringing would have doomed him to a pauper status in other lands enabled
him to be a very symbol of the opportunities the United States could give its
citizens. Above all though,
it was his single-minded determination as President to preserve the Union which
brought the country, battered but intact, through the bloodbath of the Civil War
and the final abolition of slavery.
To
honor the great President, a memorial was commissioned to coincide with the
centennial of his birth in 1909. The
grand neoclassical shrine was built atop the very spot where the Lincoln cabin
stood and encased within it the cabin itself.
The memorial was dedicated by President Taft and opened to the public in
1911.
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| The birthplace memorial. |
THE HISTORICAL PARK:
Abraham
Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is located on two tracts of land in
the vicinity of the small town of Hodgenville, Kentucky.
The
main tract of property is the location of Lincoln’s birthplace and the
neoclassical memorial. The memorial
stands atop a small hill beside the “Sinking Spring,” a natural spring which
gave the property its original name. A
series of fifty-six steps, marking Lincoln’s age at the time of his
assassination, lead up to the memorial which encloses a log cabin. Contrary to the beliefs at the time the
memorial was constructed, the cabin within the memorial is not the real Lincoln
birthplace. The error was not discovered
until long after the memorial was built and it has since been redubbed the “Symbolic
Cabin.” At the bottom of the hill is the
visitor center while across the road is a picnic area. There are short trails around the property on either side of the
road.
The
second tract of land is several miles away from the main site at an area called
Knob Creek. When Lincoln was only two
years old, his father Thomas Lincoln was forced off the Sinking Spring property
in a land dispute and rented property at nearby Knob Creek while the dispute
was settled. The Lincoln’s continued to
live at Knob Creek until Abraham was seven years old, at which point Thomas
Lincoln moved the family in search of better opportunities to Indiana. A replica of the second Lincoln cabin is at
the site, as well as a tavern built in the early 20th century meant
to cater to tourists.
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| The "Symbolic Cabin" within the memorial. |
TRAVEL TIPS:
Abraham
Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is roughly an hour’s drive south
from Louisville, Kentucky and forty-five minutes north from Mammoth Cave National Park. The memorial
section of the park and the visitor center are open year-round with holiday
exceptions from 9am to 5pm. The Knob
Creek area ground are open twenty-four hours a day, while the cabin and tavern
are open seasonally. The visitor center
holds several artifacts including the Lincoln family Bible and contains a short
film. The park is handicapped
accessible. Passport stamps can be found
at both the primary visitor center and at the Ranger station at Knob Creek. For those hoping to visit Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park and Mammoth Cave National Park on the same day, please note that the Lincoln Birthplace is in the Eastern Time Zone while Mammoth Cave is in the Central Time Zone.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
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| The Knob Creek cabin and the Lincoln Tavern. |
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| The pathway leading down to the Sinking Spring. |
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| The Lincoln family Bible, on display at the visitor center. |
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