‘Symbolic’ history

HODGENVILLE, KY. » Years ago, I’d heard that people making the pilgrimage to the tiny log cabin on the farm where Abraham Lincoln was born sometimes burst into tears when they glimpsed it.

That alone made it seem worth a trip to Sinking Spring Farm in the remote town of Hodgenville, Kentucky. And so my wife, Lucy, and I set out for a visit. As it turned out, the reality was a little different from what we expected.

Historians have said Lincoln’s hardscrabble early years contributed much to his character. “I was born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life,” Lincoln once wrote. His parents paid $200 for the farm with stony clay soil that became a symbol of pioneer self-sufficiency on the Kentucky frontier.

Visitors today pass through countryside that remains pastoral before arriving at the sweeping entrance to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park. It leads to a visitor center with displays of family artifacts, a film about the future president’s earliest years and, of course, a gift shop where you can get a stovepipe hat.

The centerpiece of the site is the Memorial Building nearby, reached by a walkway through woods or by ascending 56 wide ABRAHAM LINCOLN SITES Abraham Lincoln Birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky: www.nps.gov/abli/index.htm. Kentucky’s Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville: www.lincolnmuseum-ky.org. Boyhood home at Knob Creek: www.nps. gov/abli/planyourvisit/boyhood-home.htm KENTUCKY HORSE PARK AND INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HORSE In Lexington, www.kyhorsepark.com and www.imh.org NATIONAL CORVETTE MUSEUM In Bowling Green, www.corvettemuseum.org stone steps, one for each year of Lincoln’s life. At the top looms a marble-and-granite neoclassical structure with tall columns and a carving in the pediment saying: “Here over the log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born . a grateful people have dedicated this memorial.”

When we entered this temple we found a park ranger silently manning a corner desk. In the middle of the floor there was a oneroom cabin with a single window and door.

But this was not, as interpretive mate-

CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS In this Nov. 18, 2017 photo a statue of Abraham Lincoln is shown outside the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville, Ky.

CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS This Nov. 18, 2017 photo shows the “symbolic cabin” housed in the Memorial Building at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park near Hodgenville, Ky.