You expect to find Abraham Lincoln sites all over Illinois, and I have. Of course, they’re ubiquitous in Springfield, his home for 24 years, including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and the Lincoln Home.
And then there’s Vandalia, the state capital prior to Springfield and the oldest existing Illinois capitol building.
Decatur was his first Illinois home, and he lived in West Salem prior to Springfield.
As a lawyer, Lincoln rode all over the 8th Judicial Circuit, and there are commemorative sites throughout Central Illinois where Lincoln stayed, spoke and worked. The Museum of the Grand Prairie captures Lincoln Travels through the area.
I’ve searched out many of these places, which are often part of the Illinois Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition.
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There are plenty of Lincoln sites outside of Illinois, too, like his birthplace and First Lincoln Memorial in Kentucky, his Indiana boyhood home, and of course, his place of honor on Mount Rushmore.
Occasionally, however, Lincoln pops up where you least expect him. We found him recently in Beloit, Wisconsin. Skip and I were browsing the shops in the downtown area when we wandered past this building and noticed the plaque commemorating Lincoln’s 1859 visit.
In what unexpected place have you found a Lincoln site? Let me know in the comments below.
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