Springfield Illinois

From Cave City we headed north and stopped for the night at Mt Vernon, Illinois.

While driving around Mt Vernon we spotted the 5th district Appellate court. Here young Abe Lincoln argued a case while he was a lawyer in the area.




From there it was on to Springfield to learn about Abe. We first we visited the house he lived in before he became president. He bought it for $1500 and lived here in Springfield for about 6 years.



Then it was on to the museum which was the best of any presidential museums we have visited. We spent about 4 hours just taking in the information found there. A real history lesson.




The museum consisted of many displays with two main areas. The first was his history prior to becoming president and the second from his election until his assassination.



Scenes depicting his stance on the issues of the day were prevalent.






Other scenes showed his home life with Mary Todd Lincoln. The civil war history played a major role in the museum.

After the museum we walked the downtown and visited the old State Capital building. 

The House of Representatives  was as it would have looked in Lincoln's day.

 

From there we drove to the cemetery to visit the Lincoln grave site.







Inside we found the grave marker of President Lincoln. A fitting end to our Lincoln day. We'll spend two more days in the area and then head for the farm in Minnesota. There we'll take a 11 day rest from the road and recharge the batteries. More in a couple of weeks.