This blog post was updated on July 8, 2021.
Just like many beloved foods, log cabins also deserve their own holiday each year. These simple and often primitive dwellings are symbols of humble beginnings, solitude and peace. Log Cabin Day, officially June 25th, can be spent getting away from technology at a log cabin or visiting a few historic cabins. And appropriately, the 16th President of the U.S once occupied some of the most famous, historic log cabins in the country — specifically, in Kentucky. Today you can visit three reconstructed log cabins that belonged to Abraham Lincoln, all while appreciating these back to basics structures.
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace: Located in Central Kentucky, the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace is where any Lincoln log cabin journey should begin. The site showcases what his early life was like on Kentucky’s frontier. It also represents the country’s first memorial to Lincoln. Lincoln was born on site in a single room log cabin on his father’s Sinking Springs Farm in 1809. While the original log cabin did not survive, you can see a reconstructed cabin housed within a grand neoclassic monument. In order to see the cabin and the monument, you must climb 56 steps, the age of Lincoln at his death. There is a Visitor’s Center on site where you can see more details of Lincoln’s humbler beginnings, including artifacts like the family Bible.
Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood Home at Knob Creek: If you want to visit a place where Lincoln actually referenced and remembered, you can head to the Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home at Knob Creek. Lincoln wrote that it was here he had his earliest recollections. Located near Elizabethtown in Kentucky, the site features exterior exhibits only, including a reconstructed log cabin, made to look as it did when the Lincoln family resided here from 1811 to 1816. While privately owned up until 2001, the Knob Creek residence is now an extension of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace site. You can roam the grounds where Lincoln lived on 30 acres and the infamous setting where he nearly drowned as a boy.
Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site: While Kentucky might boast a number of Lincoln log cabins, Illinois is proud of its Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. The 86 acre historic site includes an accurate reproduction of the Lincolns’ two-room cabin. Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, father and stepmother to the 16th president, once occupied the space and the 19th century home. Located right on the space the original occupied, the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site also includes the Moore Home where Lincoln bid farewell to his family in 1861 before leaving to take the ultimate role as President. Located 8 miles south of Charleston, Illinois, the setting also boasts the gravesites of Thomas and Sarah Lincoln.
Pic via Wikimedia Commons – Daniel Schwen
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