Monday, December 1, 2008 10:05 PM CST
COLUMN: Gray, gloomy day at historic site matched mood of one visitor
By BILL LAIR, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
When I pulled into the almost-empty parking lot at Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site on Sunday, the first thing I noticed was the license plate on the white truck next to me: Land of Lincoln.
Ironic that in the Land of Lincoln, among the historic state sites that were closed on Sunday was Lincoln Log Cabin.
I have been going to Lincoln Log Cabin for 35 years, ever since moving to the area.
On Sunday, I wanted to spend some time at the site again before it closed.
Although the skies were gray and gloomy, both the Lincoln and Sargent homes were at their “Sunday Best” under the layer of light snow that had fallen overnight.
I just wanted to go through the Lincolns’ cabin one more time to reinforce that early realization that the family of one of our greatest presidents actually lived there. I am amazed that some 18 members of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln’s family lived in that two-room cabin that also had a loft for sleeping.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go in the cabin on Sunday. The big blue doors were locked tight. I couldn’t even look in because the curtains were drawn shut on both windows.
So I trudged up to the visitor center where volunteers Frank and Janet Fraembs were staffing the counter.
They joked that the last person to sign the visitor log would be responsible for watching over the 86-acre site until it reopens, hopefully, sometime next summer.
Lincoln Log Cabin opened as a state park in 1936. It was developed because the federal government needed some public works projects during the Great Depression when so many people were out of work.
Today, when the nation is facing its biggest economic slowdown since the 1930s, the site that was created in economic hardship is closing because of economic woes.
The local Civilian Conservation Corps built a reproduction of the original Lincoln cabin. The CCC also built Fox Ridge State Park about six miles south of Charleston on Illinois Route 130, which also opened in 1936 but is not one of the seven state parks closed on Sunday.
Nearby Hidden Springs State Forest and Wolf Creek State Park, both in Shelby County, however, were on the closure list.
I certainly understand that the state has budget problems. I would not place state parks and historic sites over some state agencies such as substance abuse treatment centers or child welfare staff.
But I think Gov. Rod Blagojevich and legislative leaders did a dismal job of crafting a budget last spring.
Closing state sites could have been prevented, and I am disheartened that one of those 12 state historic sites that is closing is Lincoln Log Cabin.
The 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth is in February 2009.
About 10 years ago, state historians began the “Looking for Lincoln” program, designed to send Lincoln enthusiasts beyond Springfield to see that Illinois truly is the “Land of Lincoln.”
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum was built in Springfield as a centerpiece.
Charleston and other communities where the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates took place in 1858 improved their sites.
A lot of Lincoln-related development has taken place all over Illinois.
Now, some of it has been closed.
The Vandalia Statehouse, where Lincoln first served as a legislator, also was closed. The David Davis mansion in Bloomington and Bryant cottage in Bement, both Lincoln-related sites, were on the list to be closed but private funds will enable those two sites to remain open.
True, Abraham Lincoln did not live at Lincoln Log Cabin. He did visit his family there when he traveled the circuit as a lawyer.
And Lincoln Log Cabin has been recognized by the state for its Lincoln connection.
In 2002, Illinois Now! magazine, published by the state’s tourism agency, rated Lincoln Log Cabin as the fifth-best Lincoln site in the state.
Imagine that: The fifth-best Lincoln site in the state, as judged by the state’s tourism office, has been closed.
In 2001, Lincoln Log Cabin also was honored when the Illinois Capital Development Board presented it with the 2001 Thomas H. Madigan Award, which goes to a state project “that deserves special recognition,” a spokeswoman for the ICDB said.
That award was for the visitor center that was completed in 1998 at Lincoln Log Cabin.
Gov. Jim Edgar, the Charleston native, was in office when the $3 million visitor center was approved by the Illinois Legislature in the 1990s. The visitor center includes an art gallery, an auditorium with a superb 14-minute video and permanent exhibits to give visitors the feel for the Lincolns’ life in the 1840s.
But the visitor center, along with the Lincoln cabin and Sargent home, is closed.
Lincoln Log Cabin will be open for three hours, 5-8 p.m., this Friday.
Visitors can visit the Lincoln and Sargent farms on candle-lit paths to see how Christmas was observed in the 1840s.
Then the doors to the two contrasting 1840s houses and the gates to the entire site will close once more.
I look forward to the time we can return to the Lincolns’ humble home for some more Johnny cake and cider.
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