sallyjane3

Sweet daughter, who is Abe's Number 1 fan, is returning to States from Peace Corps assignment in Africa. Wants to visit some Lincoln sites of interest before returning to regular job in Austin, TX. She's been to DC multiple times so is thinking about other places. Would love to be able to suggest some sites she hasn't thought of. Any suggestions?

MagicRat

Gettysburg - Lincoln's address was made at the National Cemetery there. The hotel he stayed in the night before the speech is also still there. Plus of course the battlefield...

There's also his birthplace, in Kentucky, but I've not been there. If I think of others, I'll let you know.

MagicRat

Have a look here - this looks full of ideas....

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creat...ites/sites.htm

buttercup

Springfield, Illinois. His home is open for tours, and his tomb was, I thought, very moving. It is the state capital and I know there are other Lincoln sites, also - those are just the two I went to.

Bill_I

There is also New Salem, IL, a short distance from Springfield. This is where a Abe lived as a young adult. The village is a state historic site, restored to look like the 1830's. A couple of websites are:
http://www.petersburgil.com/p_newsalem.html or http://www.lincolnsnewsalem.com/
or the new Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield.
http://www.alincolnlibrary.com/home.html

sallyjane3

These are great, everybody. Thanks very much for your responses. Helpful info!!

dusty56438

Lincoln's Birthplace near Hodgenville, KY.

Also statue of Lincoln in Hodgenville and boyhood home near Hodgenville toward Bardstown.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site has a monument, a picnic area, a gift shop and a short trail behind the monument.

Nice area. It is between Louisville and Mammoth Cave NP.

missypie

Lots to see in and around Springfield. A new "interactive" museum just opened. (FYI, if anyone is a family of Frank Lloyd Wright, there is a terrifc FLW house very close to Lincoln's house in Springfield.)

jet519

My hometown, Greenup Illinois. Abe Lincoln slept there. Greenup is on the National Road and has a very nice bed and breakfast, a winery, antique shops, a historical candy kitchen, the old balcony porches on main street. They also have a very nice covered bridge. I believe there is a Lincoln log cabin park about 20-25 miles from Greenup. It is a very small town but it is within an hour and a half to two hours from Springfield and about an hour and a half from Salem so you could go to all three places in the same vicinity. Try going to Cumberlandcountyalias.com for starters and then just try googling Greenup, Illinois and you should find a couple of other leads.

aberdeen

A must-see is the brand-new Lincoln Library & Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Plus Lincoln's Home, Lincoln's law offices, Lincoln's Tomb and the nearby New Salem living-history settlement. And those are only a few of the Lincoln sites in Illinois. Go to www.enjoyillinois.com for more info, or www.visit-springfield.il.us. It's a treasure-trove of Lincoln sites!

Citylghts

The chair iin which Lincoln was shot and the Logan County Courthouse where he argued cases are in The Henry Ford Complex in Dearborn, MI, just outside Detroit. www.hfmgv.org.

JJ5

The new Presidential Abraham Lincoln Library & Museum in Springfield IL is starting to get the larger marketing campaign going now. They wanted to get all the kinks out first, I think.

I saw a 1/2 page ad for it in the newspaper this week and it states, "Don't view Abraham Lincoln's legacy and past, but visit with him in the present."

It is really something how they high teched this. Your daughter has got to get there, because she will be floored if Abe is her guy.

rackensack

You really need to get a copy of Sarah Vowell's book "Assassination Vacation", which details her travels to and ruminations on sites related to the Garfield, McKinley, and especially Lincoln, who's something of a hero for Vowell. She's an interesting and engaging writer and one of my favorites (you might have heard some of her pieces on NPR's "This American Life", at least have heard her voice as that of teenage daughter Violet Parr in the recent animated film "The Incredibles"). She's covered pretty much every site related to Lincoln in her travels.

jp36

If you go to Springfield and New Salem, and I assume you will, you may want to swing about 30-45 minutes up I-55 to Lincoln, Illinois, the first town named after Abe. It was done so when he was a Congressman.

You can visit the replica of the "Postville Courthouse" - the original of which is in Dearborn, MI, as mentioned above. There's the watermelon statue at the site near the train station where Lincoln christened the town with a watermelon. And there's the statue of a young Lincoln reading at Lincoln College. Not a lot of sights, but a pretty town, and it is "Lincoln" after all.