Visiting Tom and Sarah

No domestic trip of more than a few days is really complete without a visit to a presidential site and a cemetery, if you ask me. So it was a bit of good luck that the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site is in Coles County, Illinois, not far south of the Amish country that we visited over Memorial Day weekend. As soon as I found that out, I knew I had to drop by.

Strictly speaking, it isn't a presidential site. No president, including Lincoln, was born, lived, died or did anything significant there. The land in Coles County belonged to Lincoln's father and stepmother, Tom and Sarah Lincoln, which they farmed while Abe was off in Springfield making a name as a lawyer and politician. The future president did visit as often as he could, though.

The log cabin that you see today is not theirs, but a Civilian Conservation Corps replica. It seems that the original Lincoln Log Cabin was packed off to the Columbian Exposition in 1893 and after that -- oops, now where did it go? The furnishing and other farm buildings are also of the period, the 1840s, but not of the Lincoln's.

But was a good enough facsimile, and included other farming structures. The surrounding territory was freshly green, and it was warm but not too warm. There were also short trails to walk around and, elsewhere in the site, shelters with picnic tables. Ultimately we had lunch at one of these, made on our camp stove: beans and bacon, mostly. Something 1840s about that choice, but not the propane used to cook it.

Below are a few pictures. More about the cemetery tomorrow.

The cabin itself.

A current resident of the nearby barn.

A trail leading away from the cabin. The reproduction of an 1840s farm includes a fence of the period off in the distance, but doesn't go so far as to include crops.