My last stop was a bust, but when life gives you lemons you adjust and make the best of it. Or lemonade, I don’t know. In this case it afforded me the reason to detour to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky. The park is split into two separate units, right now I am at the Birthplace Unit at Sinking Spring.
Visitor Center
Starting at the visitor center I was able to get some background history on the location and details about Lincoln’s life.
Watched most of the movie titled “The Kentucky Years” that covered his pre-Presidential timeline.
A small replica log cabin including some artifacts/replicas like a musket and some pots and pans. Why is this relevant? Well…
In December 1808, Thomas Lincoln (Abraham’s father) purchased the 300-acre Sinking Spring farm for $200. Abraham would be born here in February 1809 and their home was a single room log cabin. The Lincolns only stayed here for two years due to problems with the land title; Thomas fought in court to keep the land but ultimately lost and they had to move.
A display titled “Boundary Oak Tree” is a preserved cross-section of a White Oak that was once a living connection back to Lincoln and marked the corner of the property. Approximate sprout date 1781, died in 1976 and removed a few years later. A timeline of events linked to the growth rings connects the history.
A sign titled “Encore for a Threatened Giant” details how chestnut trees once filled forests all across the eastern United States before being decimated in the 1920s by a disease called chestnut blight. On the Sinking Spring Farm, Abraham would often do chores like splitting wood and this helped him connect to commoners and win the Presidency. The pictured chestnut tree in Kentucky has the blight but survives, and the American Chestnut Foundation uses this tree to start new seedlings in hopes of bringing them back.
Memorial Building
There are several connected walking paths leading to the Memorial Building, including an accessible trail/boardwalk. However today the accessible route is closed “because of emergency conditions” which I recall overhearing was from a fallen tree (but that could be wrong). Instead, I walked down one of the other paths which are less accessible to some because of staircases.
A small replica memorial sits at a distance with park benches. The text on the affixed plaque reads:
“Here over the log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born destined to preserve The Union and to free the slave, A grateful people have dedicated this memorial to unity, peace, and brotherhood among these states with malice towards none with charity for all.”
A distant view of the Memorial Building. The cornerstone was laid on what would have been Lincoln’s 100th birthday on February 12, 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt, and two years later on November 9, 1911 the site was dedicated by President William Howard Taft.
A few steps closer to the memorial gives a more detailed view. According to the Wikipedia article “The Memorial Building features 16 windows, 16 rosettes on the ceiling, and 16 fence poles, representing Lincoln being the 16th president. The 56 steps leading up to the building entrance represent his age at his death.”
A zoomed view at the peak of the Memorial building shows an inscription of the same dedication we previously noted on the small replica display.
A sign titled “An Enduring Symbol” discusses the neoclassical architecture style, The Lincoln Farm Association’s efforts to construct the building as a “national shrine”, and shares photos of both Presidents Roosevelt and Taft at the site. The site was designated the Abraham Lincoln National Park in 1916.
A sign titled “An Idyllic Frontier Scene” represents what life may have looked like, and briefly discusses how frontier settlers lived off the land.
Atop the stairs and entering the Memorial. Plaques on either side of the doors credits members of the Lincoln Farm Association for bringing this to reality.
Inside the Memorial is a small one room log cabin that the family lived in. Unfortunately some 40 years after the 1916 National Park designation it was determined to not be the original Lincoln cabin, but remains here nonetheless as a representation and “an icon of Lincoln’s humble beginnings.”
Boundary Oak Trail
Outside the Memorial building you can jump right on to the short Boundary Oak Trail that passes the site of the Boundary Oak and includes interpretive signs as it winds through the farm’s wooded areas.
It’s a very short and easy trail of less than 1/2 mile with a gravel base that is relatively flat. Not many leaves on the trees today but it’s a nice quick walk outdoors.
A sign marking the “Boundary Oak” which we saw in the visitor center shows a photo of the tree when it was living and notes it’s location only 150 yards from the cabin where Lincoln was born.
Sinking Spring
The farm was named Sinking Spring Farm for it’s own natural spring. A sign provides additional details on what a karst window is and how the unique hydrologic system works.
Sinking Spring was also known as Cave Spring and Rock Spring, and travelers would often pause and drink the cool water (not allowed today). You can see the spring by walking down a set of stone and concrete steps into the “cave.”
Behind the protective guard rail you can see how the spring waters drop into a circular hole before continuing on underground before draining back to the nearby South Fork Nolin River.
Here’s the view looking directly down into the hole. Definitely unique from what I’ve seen in the past. There’s more water moving than the pictures really show and it is noticeably cooler at the opening.
The source of the spring or creek comes from within this stone cave upstream from where it drops down below. I can’t make out much of anything inside, but the water must be coming from the surface at some point as evidence by all the decaying leaves it carries and deposits in the cavern.
Nancy Lincoln Inn
The final point of interest is the Nancy Lincoln Inn. According to the sign, in 1928 James Richard Howell built the inn and four smaller cabins from large chestnut logs to house increasing visitors. The four cabins measure 16-by-18 feet similar to what the original Lincoln cabin was imagined to have been. The buildings were named in honor of Lincoln’s mother and placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1991.
Here’s what the Inn looks like as of my visit in 2024. Not much action going on, appears to be closed for business to my untrained eye. Something to note: both the Inn and cabins are on private property and not part of the National Park lands.
Next to the Inn with some space between each structure are the four chestnut log cabins that also appear to be currently unoccupied. Another interesting fact per the Wikipedia article: “In 1934, the National Park Service in its evaluation called the inn an ‘unacceptable adjacent commercialization’, and red cedar trees were planted to obstruct the view of the inn from the memorial log cabin temple.”
An old informational sign still stands but the wood is rotted and the painted on text is worn away and not legible. Searching online I can’t find anything about reserving the cabins as lodging so my guess would be they are no longer in service.
I might have just enough daylight left to visit the other half of this park unit, stay tuned for next post on the Knob Creek home.
Hiking Data
Here’s the route I took today across the park. All the yellow lines that I skipped were closed off (aside from that short section in the middle between the Memorial building and Boundary Oak Trail because there’s nothing to see there that I can’t see with my eyes from standing nearby). It’s a smaller site but quite interesting, and that natural spring is very unique.
Distance for my route is under 3/4 mile and everything is flat, though there are some stairs up to the Memorial and down to the spring so do account for that. A relatively easy stroll through some quiet woods and old farmland.
