By the way, did you know?

By Jim Farris

In this new monthly blog post produced by the Friends of Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial to share little or unknown facts about Abraham Lincoln, his family and his activities while living in Macon County in Illinois.  These short facts will be sent out the first day of each month.

In 1915, fifty years after President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the Illinois General Assembly authorized the State Historical Library to mark the route traveled by the Thomas Lincoln Family from their homestead in Indiana to the place where they would settle in Illinois. It would be another 50 years before the trail opened in 1963.

Thousands of markers guided the travelers as they traced the movements of the Lincolns from Kentucky to Indiana and across the Illinois wilderness to Macon County. Few markers have survived the last 58 years and the trail is all but forgotten and very difficult to follow for the modern traveler.

One marker stands proudly at the entrance to The Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial. It signifies the end of an arduous journey and the beginning of a new life for the man that would become the 16th President of the United States of America.

The entrance to the park showing the end of the road.