Description: Seeing the birthplace of American presidents is not something I have ever been interested in. But, for Abraham Lincoln, seeing his birthplace just seemed fascinating. South of Hodgenville, KY, on Route 31E, is the site of Lincoln’s birth. Though not a large site, the grounds do have a visitor center that houses some old artifacts from the Lincoln land, nature trails that lead to the memorial site and surrounding land, and the actual marble and granite memorial building built around 1910.
Inside the memorial building, you will find the birthplace cabin. It is actually quite an odd-looking thing to come across. From the outside, you see a grand, magnificent building that was built to evoke a sense of power and strength. But then you step inside and see this old, dirty, rickety cabin that looks like it is about to fall apart at any moment. I found it quite funny.
Also inside the memorial is a park ranger. The first thing we learned from him is, like the childhood home of Lincoln, this cabin is not the actual birthplace cabin that the Lincolns owned. Apparently, when the memorial was built, the historians believed the cabin being put inside this memorial was the actual Lincoln cabin. But recently, with the help of modern technology, samples of the wood were taken that showed the wood was too young to be the Lincolns’ cabin. Oh well. It just makes this memorial seem a bit more humorous with the fact that they built a giant memorial to house a cabin that did not even belong to the Lincolns.
Despite that, the cabin gives you a sense of the quality of life for people back then. It almost seems like that such a life existed thousands of years ago. But, in fact, it was less than 200 years ago.
If you’re lucky enough to have the park ranger we had, you will not learn a lot about Lincoln, but instead you’ll learn about the cost of rent in Kentucky, the best kind of bourbon to drink in Kentucky, and how everyone in Kentucky carries a knife. That’s what happens when he finds out you’re a tourist from New York City.
Also on the grounds is the Sinking Spring, which gave the name to the farmland the Lincolns owned. After walking down the memorial steps, immediately on the right is a short path down some stairs to the spring. Legend says that this is probably the spring in which Lincoln took his first sips of water.
Although both this site and Lincoln’s boyhood home site are typical American tourist attractions, it is actually quite interesting to know that you have visited the spot where one of America’s greatest leaders once lived. Both sites only require an hour or town of total visitation time, but it is well worth the time.
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