US EditionAfter years of neglect, an Illinois village with ties to Abraham Lincoln is getting a refresh
- New Salem, a state park over 200 miles southwest of Chicago, is a re-created 1930s village where volunteers in period clothing offer historical demonstrations for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
- In 1831, a 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln, with minimal formal schooling, snagged his flatboat on the Sangamon River dam at New Salem during a trip to haul freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
- Gina Gillmore-Wolter, president of the New Salem Lincoln League, and state lawmakers Wayne Rosenthal and Steve McClure advocated for the site, leading a media tour before the Illinois Department of Natural Resources promised $8 million for repairs.
- Guy Fraker, a Bloomington, Illinois lawyer and Lincoln biographer, believes that if Lincoln hadn't freed the boat, the country would be divided, while State Sen. Steve McClure stated, "This is probably the most important historic site in the state of Illinois, and certainly one of the most important historic sites in the country," and Gillmore-Wolter called it "Lincoln's alma mater".
- Despite securing funding, work has not yet been scheduled, and McClure has put the brakes on legislation to oversee conservation, addressing long-neglected maintenance as the village withered after Lincoln's 1837 departure, with residents relocating structures to Petersburg.
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After years of neglect, an Illinois village with ties to Abraham Lincoln is getting a refresh
PETERSBURG, Ill. — Before his famous debates, before the Civil War rent the nation, before he helped end slavery and before his tragic assassination, Abraham Lincoln had New Salem. The tiny central Illinois village, where Lincoln accidentally spent half-a-dozen years in the 1830s, perhaps did as much to prepare him to be the Union-saving 16th president as any other aspect of his humble yet remarkable life. Volunteers in period clothing provide h…
·Chicago, United States
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