The “Land of Lincoln” Special - 12th update from Chrisandra’s Roadtrip

Aloha all,

I can almost hear you: “What? Already another blog from Chris and Sandra?” I know, most of you have not even started to read the last post, but occasionally, we think a place is so special that it deserves it’s own update. Springfield in Illinois has been such a place for us. All of Illinois claims to be the “Land of Lincoln”, but you don’t really notice it other than on the license plates until you get close to Springfield….then all of the sudden everything is ‘All About Abe’. 

It started in Bloomington, the day before we got to Springfield. They have a historical museum, which is mostly about Lincoln, the Bloomington residents who knew Lincoln and the places in Bloomington where Lincoln has been. They do mention that Bloomington is on Route 66 and that some other people came here besides Lincoln, but considering that he never actually lived in Bloomington, it’s pretty funny how much they claim him as their home town hero.

We also visited the David Davies Mansion in Bloomington. He was a US senator and a Supreme Court justice. But not surprisingly, in Bloomington he’s mostly know for being one of Lincoln’s friends, in particular because he persuaded him to run for president. It’s all about Abe. I don’t blame them, there are only two or three presidents that pretty much everybody agrees were pretty good, so if you got one of them, you got to use it for all it’s worth.

We got a fun welcome to Springfield when we checked in at the campground at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Apparently the campground host was bored, so he offered to take us on a golf cart ride around the whole complex, telling us about the buildings, the state fair and of course the Lincoln sites.

Our private golf cart tour of the Illinois Sate Fairgrounds

In the last update I mentioned that we also found the one and only house in Springfield that has nothing to do with Lincoln and we actually went there first: It’s the Dana Thomas House by our good old friend Frank Lloyd Wright. The more of his houses we see, the more impressed I am by his work, the more appalled I am by his character and the more amused I am by his inability to build a roof that does not leak. But what I find most impressive is that his houses still look modern to us after all these years, this one is from 1904. Many buildings are out of style within a decade of being built or at least look obviously old. Frank Lloyd Wright’s work seems either way ahead of his time or just timeless. Unfortunately, they never allow photographs of the fun features inside of the house. 

The beautiful, timeless, leaking Dana Thomas House by Frank Lloyd Wright

Most presidents are lucky if their home is preserved as a museum at all. For Lincoln, Springfield not only preserved his home, but re-created the whole neighborhood where he lived. The National Park Service manages the site and per Lincoln’s son request, tours are and always will be free. This is the home where he lived before he became president. Nice middle class for the time, but nothing fancy by today’s standards.

Lincoln's Home

Since Springfield is the capital, of course we we took a tour through their state capitol. It was built after Lincoln was assassinated, but of course he’s still very well represented and remembered at the capitol building. If you have ever been to the Illinois state capitol, I bet that the first thing you said when you looked up into the rotunda was the same thing we said: “Wow!”. This truly is the most impressive state capitol dome we have seen so far. I know you think that I say that about every capitol building we visit. But I want you to go back to my last update to confirm that I did not say that about the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, even though it was really impressive, too. Springfield’s capitol dome is also the tallest in the country, taller than the national capitol in Washington.

Rotunda in the Illinois State Capitol

From what we hear, the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield had fallen into terrible disrepair. But just in time for us, they finished their $15 million renovation and now give free public tours through all but the private living areas. You would think the current governor of Illinois would get some credit for renovating the Governor’s Mansion without spending any taxpayer’s money and making it available for public tours. He’s also one of the few Illinois governors, who is not (yet) convicted of corruption, which is somewhat unusual. But the one state employee we talked to just rolled his eyes when asked whether they were glad not to have Blagojevich in office anymore (he’s currently in jail for trying to ’sell’ Obama’s senate seat). Apparently he is only slightly happier with the current governor. 

The next day was one of my favorite days of all of our road trips. According to TripAdvisor, most people spend 2-3 hours at the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. We went there when they opened and left seven hours later when they closed. The museum just opened in 2005, so it is very modern. In fact, one of the multimedia presentations, the “Ghosts off the Library”, was so well done that we had to see the show a second time just to confirm whether what we had just seen was a hologram, an animatronic or a real person. We even watched it a third time, but that was just for fun.

The Lincoln Museum would be the one place I would not blame if it were all about Lincoln. But they actually had an exhibition that included the other three presidents with Illinois ties. Only one president was born in Illinois. It’s not who most people would guess, it’s Ronald Reagan. Grant also lived in Illinois for a long time and of course Obama. Depending on who you ask that’s a pretty good record. Four good ones if you ask this German hobby historian. The Lincoln Museum does a great job telling Lincoln’s story from his log cabin beginnings, through his career as a traveling lawyer and as president during the civil war, to his untimely death. 

Some people just don't know how to dress to meet the first family...

Most other presidential museums and libraries leave out or downplay any of the criticism. Here they do the opposite: They display an amazing amount of quotes, caricatures, and news that just trash Lincoln. If you think partisan politics  today are worse than ever, this might come as a surprise. The things that were said about Lincoln during his lifetime were worse than anything I have ever heard on MSNBC about Trump or on Fox News about Obama. But of course that changed quickly after he won the civil war and died a martyr by being assassinated. Now I guess the curators of the museum are so confident in Abraham Lincoln’s reputation that they can have a whole exhibition about vicious criticism and it just makes Abraham Lincoln look even better. 

Another exhibit I really enjoyed at the Lincoln Museum was a modern day TV studio where they had Tim Russert report on the 1860 election. I wish they had these for all presidential elections, just to show that dirty partisan politics are nothing new.

Tim Russert reporting on the 1860 presidential election

After the day at the museum we were able to enjoy a real “tripple treat”: As you know, we love American history & former presidents, we love musicals and we love state capitols.  Lucky for us, we got to combine all this when we were able to get tickets for the sold out musical “1776”, performed in the historic House of Representatives at the Old State Capitol and we loved, loved, loved it. The performance was so fantastic that it really felt like we were there at the birth of the nation, even though I doubt John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Co. were singing much when they argued whether or not to declare Independence.

"1776" musical at the Old State House 

We went back to visit the Old State Capitol the next day. Only makes sense to go there twice; besides Lincoln, Obama also made history here. Plus my own first lady walked down the capitols steps, too:

Sandra at the Old State Capitol

Obama announced his candidacy and his running mate in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield. We also got to talk in depth with a historian, who enlightened us that history is never as black and white as it seems: Two examples: Stephen Douglas was not as bad as the Lincoln stories sometimes makes him look. Douglas is portrayed as the bad guy in the debates with Lincoln because he favored states rights to allow slavery, but does not get much credit for fully supporting the Union once the civil war broke out. And the Hamilton musical makes it sound like Alexander Hamilton was an abolitionist fighting for democracy, but apparently he bought and sold slaves for his in-laws and was an elitist in favor of having a president for life.

Old State Capitol at night

Our last two stops in Springfield were Lincoln’s tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery and the Elijah Iles House. This could have been just another old house of yet another guy who knew Lincoln. But even though we were the only visitors, we got to enjoy a competition between our tour guide, the curator of the mansion and the grandson of the last owner of the mansion. Between the three of them, they had lots of stories and details. The whole mansion was moved two times. We have heard that at many historical sites and it still blows my mind that they were able to move a house without any modern equipment.

Lincoln's tomb

When we left Springfield, we were already pretty impressed, little did we know that the best was yet to come. We went to Lincoln’s New Salem Historical Site. This is the small village where Lincoln lived for 6 years after moving out from his parents, apparently full of ambition but no idea what to do with it. We ended up spending almost three days here, mostly because we got here during their annual candlelight weekend, when they light the whole village with candles and they have interpreters in costumes in most of the buildings. They even serve free hot cider and gingerbread, so not surprising, there were over 1000 people there, walking from cabin to cabin, learning about Lincoln and his former neighbors, listening to live music or just enjoying the atmosphere with a faint orange glow coming out of every door and window. We loved it so much that we decided to stay another night. The second night was very different. There were only a few dozen people because it had rained hard. So no lines and one more reason to check out the next cabin to see what’s happening inside. This really is the most intriguing way to learn about history. 

Candlelight weekend at Lincoln's New Salem

The things we learnt that surprised us the most: New Salem, with it’s roughly 200 people in a little over 20 cottages was the largest town Lincoln had ever lived in at this point in his life, even though his family had moved several times from Kentucky via Indiana to Illinois. The other astounding fact: In the 1830’s, tiny New Salem was about the same size as Chicago. Yet one would grow to become a huge metropolis while the other pretty much disappeared within 10 short years, before being reconstructed in the 1930s to make it more fun for us to learn about Lincoln. I now feel like I have a better understanding how Lincoln lived there 180 years ago than how any other president ever lived anywhere, including Obama how is not even 10 years older than us and grew up within walking distance of where we lived in Honolulu.

Reconstructed 1830's New Salem - same size as Chicago at the same time!

Now we have a few more days before we go to two very special and surprising places. I bet you’ll never guess where we will be by the time I write the next update. We just ‘found out’ ourselves. I am truly surprised myself and never ever expected this place to be on our itinerary for this trip….so stay tuned.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra