Lincoln Country

Having recently seen the movie “Lincoln”, we were looking forward to seeing the exhibits and found a downtown hotel in Springfield, Illinois that was within walking distance of the Lincoln Museum. What a delight to walk instead of drive, and the museum was fascinating. It was divided into Abe’s early life – represented by a full size log cabin with exhibits; and his presidential life – represented by a small replica of the White House. In each were scenes with documents, photos, and artifacts, each depicting various aspects of his life. One particular display was a small, dark theater that you entered to see a movie – or was it a movie, a live actor, or maybe a hologram? The story was interesting, but the “effect” was even more interesting. It was so life-like that I was sure it wasn’t a movie, so I decided it must be a live person, until at the end, the “actor” slowly evaporated.

Something we didn’t know was that many newspapers of the time disliked Lincoln very much, and ran numerous derogatory political cartoons about him. Many of these were on display.

Lincoln’s Springfield home was located nearby.  The National Park Service had bought 4 blocks surrounding his home so there were several homes of his neighbors still standing that were there when the Lincolns lived there. The Park Service had restored the exteriors and a few interiors, including the Lincoln home.  A Lincoln impersonator was in this neighborhood talking to visitors and answering questions as Lincoln might have answered them, and this gave real interest to our visit. For instance, we discovered that Lincoln had a business partner named William Berry. Joyce mentioned that she had a brother by the same name, and they had a good laugh about that as Lincoln said his partner had been a scoundrel and an alcoholic and hoped her brother was not kin.

One day we visited a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright built in 1904. It occupied half of a city block and was about 10,000 sq. ft. on 12 levels.  All the furniture, fixtures, and stained-glass windows were also designed by Wright. It took 2 years to build. John commented to the tour guide that it must have taken more than 2 years just to draw up the plans! It was a marvel to behold with running water and electricity.

Continuing our trip northward, we stopped in Ottawa, IL and visited an interesting state park named Starved Rock near the Illinois River, had a great seafood dinner at a neat restaurant overlooking the river, visited a navigation lock, and watched the river traffic go through. We put together a panoramic photo of the lock, which made barge traffic possible on the river. We learned that there are 9 of these locks along the river so it is navigable from the great lakes area to the Mississippi.