As we left Cave City, Kentucky, and the land of Mammoth Cave National Park, we have a 67-mile trip planned in the motor home to our next campground. That should take around an hour because we'll be on a four-lane road almost the entire time. But today, we are making that quick and easy drive into a Kentucky road trip. We soon pulled off the interstate and into a residential area in Munfordville for some curious pictures with rocks.
Denisa had read about a guy whose hobby was making rock gardens--with huge proportions. He decided to build a replica of England's Stonehenge in his back yard.That's because our next stop is at the home of this young family that homesteaded here in central Kentucky. The statue is of the Lincoln family, and the baby in the Mother's arms is young Abraham.
In the visitor center we found this interesting likeness of President Lincoln
It was made entirely of Lincoln-head pennies, worn or shiny to make different colors to shade the image.
While most people associate the state of Illinois with President Lincoln, he didn't actually move to that state until the age of 21. He was born here among the tall trees of Kentucky on a farm called Sinking Spring. The people of Kentucky decided to build a memorial to his birth place here. It is situated on a rolling hill, with 56 steps to represent the 56 years he lived.
The corner stone of this memorial was laid in 1906, and President Taft was here for its grand opening. What would you guess would be inside that memorial?
While the Lincoln family would have loved to live out their years at the Sinking Springs farm, there was a disagreement in the ownership of the land. This often happened in the early years of Kentucky, and the Lincolns lost the court battle on the land they had paid for. So they moved down the road ten miles and leased Knob Creek Farm. We moved the motor home down that narrow road the same number of miles. This is the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln, where most of his childhood memories were made. It was in this field that young Abe helped his father grow corn and pumpkins.
One of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood memories would be of the day that he almost drowned in the creek that runs through this property. He was saved by a boyhood friend, Austin Gollaher, who reached out with a stick to pull him out of the water. Logs from the old Gollaher home were used to build a log cabin replica on this property.
People have been stopping along this narrow road for many years to see Abe Lincoln's boyhood home. In 1933 a tavern was built to give those travelers a place to "rest." The old Lincoln Tavern is now the visitor's center at this national historic site.
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