Friday, July 10, 2009 8:51 PM CDT
Coasters, caves & canoes
By DAWN SCHABBING, Features Writer
dschabbing@jg-tc.com
They called it “Coasters, Caves and Canoes.” My family called the two-and-a-half-day jaunt through southern Indiana informative and enjoyable.
The escorted media tour focused on sites depicting the life of Abraham Lincoln, as a boy growing up in southern Indiana and Kentucky, before he moved to Illinois.
With 2009 as the bicentennial year of Lincoln’s birth on Feb. 12, 1809, it is especially fitting to make these stops this year.
Some highlights of the tour included the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, just outside Lincoln City, Ind.; the impressive Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Plaza and newly re-opened Lincoln Amphitheatre in Lincoln City, Ind.; Rockport (Ind.) Lincoln Pioneer Village; camping at Lake Rudolph Campground and RV Resort in Santa Claus; Santa’s Candy Castle in Santa Claus; Holiday World and Splashin Safari, Santa Claus; the peaceful Bed and Breakfast called the The Leavenworth Inn, Leavenworth, Ind.; breakfast and dinner at the nearby The Overlook restaurant; and finally, Marengo Cave and Cave Country Canoes, in Marengo, Ind.
While the points of interest on the tour were all appealing in some degree or another, I’ve highlighted our favorites.
-- The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Plaza, located inside Lincoln State Park, is Indiana’s tribute to the former president. While the play, simply called “Lincoln,” was preparing for its opening show during our visit, we came away feeling the place would be a fantastic way to learn more about our 16th president. The theater had been closed for several years before the state allocated $1.6 million to revive it this year.
The outdoor, covered amphitheatre performance also includes an Amish prepared meal in its ticket price. Only extreme weather would cause the show to be canceled.
The theater is expecting 40,000 visitors during this re-opening season. Shows run through Aug. 15, with nightly performances except Mondays.
-- Another hot spot was Santa’s Candy Castle, where we sipped on the shop’s speciality, a frozen hot chocolate, and sampled some of the “World’s Largest Selection of Candy Canes.”
More than 30 flavors of candy canes were listed, and many drink flavors, too. Kids can interact with Santa’s elves via the Internet. Menu choices of hot drinks expand during the winter.
The castle was opened in 1935 and thrived until World War II. It limped along and closed in the ‘70s. But in 2006, it was renovated and re-opened.
-- The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Ind., was another nice stop. The visit began with a 15-minute video about the president’s growing-up years. There are exhibits to view, and a short walk took us down the Lincoln Boyhood Trail to the marble headstone of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s mother.
People in period dress were nearby on the Lincoln Living Historical Farm. The visitor center’s outside walls are sculptured panels that depict aspects of Lincoln’s life. Quotations from Lincoln’s speeches are noted on the walls.
This memorial also features the Trail of Twelve Stones. While the landscape is beautiful and the historical points interesting, the often small stones themselves offered little to hold our interest. The stones of varying sizes laid out along the half-mile scenic walking trail represent bits of Lincoln’s life in chronological order, from his first years in Hodgenville, Ky.; to his teen years, when he worked at a local store; to a boulder brought in from the Civil War Battlefield at Gettysburg.
-- We spent one night in a rented camper at Lake Rudolph Campground and RV Resort in Santa Claus. The park was awarded the 2008-09 National RV Park of the Year. It features a pool, mini golf, games, 216 family rentals and 40 tent sites. Recent improvements include the addition of wi-fi, electrical golf carts to rent, and the Blitzen Kitchen, with plenty of food choices.
-- Another night was spent at The Leavenworth Inn, Leavenworth, Ind. The inn, a bed and breakfast, is situated overlooking the Ohio River. The inn has 16 rooms, including four suites, each with breakfast at The Overlook Restaurant, a short walk up Indiana Route 62. The restaurant has seating for 225 and has served customers for more than 50 years.
The inn offers a library, parlor games, walking and biking paths, tennis court, shuffleboard courts and a gazebo. The house was built in the late 1800s, and the inn and restaurant face the Ohio River.
-- Another Lincoln stop was at the Rockport Lincoln Pioneer Village and Musuem. This location depicts life between 1816 and 1830 in Spencer County.
The village and its 14 cabins associated with Lincoln were used for filming of “The Kentuckian,” starring Burt Lancaster and Walter Matthau, in about 1955.
-- One of our final stops was at Marengo Cave. Nearby, canoes can be rented for a scenic view down the Blue River. There are two different cave tours, both at 52 degrees year-round. The caves were discovered by two youngsters in 1883.
-- Santa Claus Museum was another quick stop. It is loaded with history about the town and, namely, its post office. The town of Santa Claus has been answering letters written to Santa for nearly a century. It started when Postmaster James Martin took it upon himself to begin the process for children.
Last year, the museum answered 35,600 letters. It displays letters from children as far back as the 1940s. It is located two doors south of the post office.
-- Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari at Santa Claus offers a variety of rides both wet and dry. It received the Applause Award in 2004, the smallest park to receive the highly-coveted award. The park opened in 1946 as Santa Claus Land.
Santa Claus, Ind., was incorporated in 1967 with 50 people. Today it has a population of about 2,200, with plenty to offer families and groups.
Want to go?
Lincoln Amphitheatre, www.lincolnamphitheatre.com;
Santa’s Candy Castle, www.santascandycastle.com;
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, www.nps.gov/libo;
Marengo Cave and Canoes, www.adventureindiana.com;
Lake Rudolph Campground & RV, www.lakerudolph.com;
Friends of the Lincoln Pioneer Village, 812-649-9147
Santa Claus Museum, www.santaclausmuseum.org;
The Leavenworth Inn, www.leavenworthinn.com;
The Overlook Restaurant, www.theoverlook.com;
Holiday World, www.holidayworld.com.
Dawn Schabbing is a features writer for the Mattoon Journal Gazette/Times Courier.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
