My Old Kentucky Home

First thing this morning we checked out of our room at the Mammoth Cave Hotel and hit a drive-thru in Cave City for breakfast since we were going to lose an hour traveling to Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP. 

Abraham Lincoln was born near Hodgenville, KY in a single room log cabin on February 12, 1809. His father, Thomas, purchased the 300-acre Sinking Spring Farm just a few months earlier. Two years later, the family moved to a farm on Knob Creek, where the soil was richer. And due to property disputes, the family then moved to Indiana in 1816 (see this post for more about our visit there).

Water still flows from Sinking Spring

One hundred years after Lincoln's birth, a memorial was constructed to honor our nation's 16th president. There are 56 steps (one for each year of Lincoln's life) leading up to the building which houses a symbolic log cabin.

While not the original Lincoln cabin, it was built in this area at about the same time period

Other than the 15-minute movie and a few displays in the visitor center, there is not much else to see. The Boyhood Home Unit at Knob Creek was closed due to construction, so we didn't visit that part of the park. 

The only original item is the Lincoln family's Bible

Growing up, I was completely fascinated by Abraham Lincoln and read everything I could find about him. So even though we finished our visit pretty quickly, I enjoyed spending time here and imagining what it must have been like 200 years ago!