New Salem State Park

New Salem Historical Park

 

Time to head to Wisconsin. We headed up Interstate 55 through central Illinois. There are a lot of sites in Illinois to learn about Abraham Lincoln including the Lincoln Presidential Library and the site of his home in Springfield. We’ve visited both, this time we went to the New Salem State Historical Park. Lincoln spent 6 years of his life in his mid-twenties in this village. 

Lincoln, the surveyor

He was a shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster here. He also spent a lot of time reading, eventually becoming a lawyer. He left the town to become a state legislator, the start of his political career. The park movie explained this as well as the fact that the village died soon after he left. The. Site has about 15 or so buildings, mostly recreations that represent this historical village. Unfortunately, there were no folks who replayed the characters of the town today, so the village wasn’t very exciting. The highlight of the place was the 15-minute video. We camped that night at Starved Rock State Park.

The Coopers shop