A Detour to the site of Abraham Lincoln's Birth

Today we are driving down the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. And, my oldest daughter has made the connection between Knob Creek Bourbon and the 16th President of the United States. So, we have decided to detour a little bit for the sake of a history lesson.

What does our 16th President have to do with bourbon? A lot more than most people might think. But, this connection will have to wait until my next post. This post is about the Sinking Spring Farm in Kentucky.

SINKING SPRING FARM - Hodgenville, Kentucky
The Sinking Spring Farm was purchased by Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in late 1808. And, on February 12, 1809, their son, Abraham, was born. Within a few years, Thomas Lincoln lost this farm in a land dispute. Not to be discouraged, the Lincoln family moved to a farm on Knob Creek, a few miles to the north.

The farm was purchased by a man from New York, A.W. Dennett, in 1894. He soon dismantled a home on the property that was rumored to have been built with logs from the original Lincoln cabin. These logs were eventually sold to the Lincoln Farm Association, who discovered that these were not logs from the original Lincoln cabin. By 1916, this farm was donated to the National Park System by the Lincoln Farm Association.

A memorial was started on the grounds in 1909. President Theodore Roosevelt helped to lay the cornerstone. This memorial has 56 steps, one for each year of Abraham Lincoln's life. The memorial was formally dedicated in 1911 by President William Howard Taft. Inside this memorial is a cabin constructed with the infamous "Lincoln Logs" that was a representation of the cabin that Lincoln was born in. In the memorial there are 16 windows, 16 rosettes, and 16 fence posts. These are to represent the fact that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States of America.