During this bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birth (February 12, 1809), there are plenty of sites to which you can go to see some of his history. They include Washington, D.C., of course, and Springfield IL, but of importance on any list is his birthplace in central Kentucky. In honoring the birthplace of the man who is arguably America's greatest or second-greatest (after Washington) president, the creators of this site faced a nearly impossible task, as the original cabin had disappeared by 1865. So they put together a group of logs that they believed may have been part of the original, mixed them with other early logs, and built a cabin in the early 20th century that they believed resembled the original. When that was finished, they then built a neo-classic style marble shrine around it. The latter, now called the Memorial Building, was constructed from public subscription funds, and one of the board members who helped raise the money was Mark Twain.
There was originally (since 1916) an Abraham Lincoln National Park, but in 1939, it became a National Historical Park and in 1959 a National Historic Site. Knob Creek was added in 1998, and in 2009, the two together were designated a National Historical Park. Its size is 344 acres.
Highlights
The first thing to remember is that there are two units in the park, both accessible from US route 31. The first is the Birthplace Unit near Hodgenville, the second is the Boyhood Home Unit, the latter at Knob Creek Farm. They are about ten miles apart. Both are about 55 miles south of Louisville.
Lincoln was born on the 116-acre farm owned by his father, Thomas. Named Sinking Spring Farm, it now holds the marble shrine and an early 19th-century Kentucky cabin, similar, it is thought, to the one in which the future president was born.
Abraham wrote in 1860 that his "earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place," where the family lived on 30 rented acres from the time Abraham was two until he was seven. As president, he said he could remember planting pumpkin seeds in the garden in every other hill and in every other row while the others were planting corn. The following day a big rain in the hills flooded the creek and washed away their garden. The cabin you see here today is not original to this site, but may have belonged to neighbors and was moved here early in the 20th century.
Activities
At the Birthplace Unit (1909-1911), there are self-guided and informal ranger-led tours of the Visitor Center, an 18-minut movie shown every 30 minutes, and a self-guided tour of park grounds. You can hike the Big Sink Trail, when it opens after repairs, of about one mile in length, picnic (with grills), or watch birds and wildlife.
At the Boyhood Home Unit you can hike the three-mile Overlook Trail when it reopens, walk along Kong Creek, or picnic and bird or wildlife watch.
Flora and Fauna
With luck, you could spot one or more of these critters which have been seen at the site: white-tailed deer, raccoon, squirrel, eastern chipmunk, cottontail rabbit, coyote, red fox, little brown bats. Of the 112 birds seen here, the most important are blue-headed vireo, swamp sparrow, osprey, ruby-throated hummingbird and northern harrier.
There are about 90 species of plants here, the loveliest of which in spring are flowering dogwood, eastern redbud and Catawba rhododendron . Admission Fees
There are no fees to enter either unit.
Ranger Programs
Children can participate in the free Junior Ranger Program. Get a booklet and patch free at the Birthplace Unit Visitor Center. They can also build a small log cabin using miniature logs at the Visitor Center. (Lincoln Logs were invented by John Lloyd Wright, son of the famous architect, back in about 1916.)
New for 2009
Due to excessive damage caused by an ice storm, both the nature trails in the park and the handicap accessible boardwalk to the Memorial Building are still closed as of time of writing.
There will be costumed interpretive programs on July 4 and on Labor Day (September 7), check website for times.
Visitors
In 2008, there were 200,404 visitors to this site.
Contacts
The official website of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site is www.nps.gov/abli. The phone is 270/358-3137 and 3138.
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