The Lincoln Trail State Memorial is a sculpture group designed in 1937 by Nellie Verne Walker and erected in 1938 to commemorate the first entrance of Abraham Lincoln, then a destitute 21-year-old frontiersman, into Illinois. It is located at the west end of the

Lincoln Memorial Bridge Lincoln Memorial Bridge is a deck arch bridge carrying U.S. Route 50 Business over the Wabash River between Vincennes, Indiana and Lawrence County, Illinois. It is said to mark the point where Abraham Lincoln crossed the Wabash River on his way ...

on U.S. Route 50 Business in rural Lawrence County, approximately 11 miles (18 km) east of Lawrenceville.

Description

Lincoln's own memories, and independent records, point to the family of Thomas Lincoln entering Illinois in early March, 1830, crossing over the Wabash River by primitive flatboat or ferry from their former home in Indiana. After unloading themselves from the boat, the Lincoln family would have hitched up their

oxen An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...

to the cart or wagon that carried their modest household goods, and begun to trudge northwest on the primitive trails that led to open, unclaimed farmland in central Illinois. Walker's sculptural installation depicts the scene, with the family, animals, and oxcart depicted in bas-relief carved in Bedford stone and a tall young man, representing the young Lincoln, cast in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

and given a prominent place on the pedestal in front of the relief. Following their entry into Illinois, the Lincoln family trekked to what is now known as the

Lincoln Trail Homestead State Memorial The Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial is a state park located on the Sangamon River in Macon County near Harristown, Illinois, United States. Home of Lincoln family The state memorial is believed to contain the site of the hom ...

near

Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 70,522 as of the 2020 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Ce ...

, where young Abraham parted ways with his family. The Lincoln Trail State Memorial was installed in 1938 during the administration of Illinois Governor Henry Horner, an admirer of the Lincoln legacy. A bridge had replaced the old flatboats and ferries that had previously crossed the Wabash River. Horner hoped that the Memorial would both pay tribute to the young Lincoln and also serve as a sort of roadside welcome center to westward-bound drivers on U.S. Route 50, which was then a key east-west trunk route in the central U.S. states. Less than thirty years after the installation, however, the federal Interstate highway system bypassed Lawrence County and its Memorial. As of 2011, the Lincoln Trail State Memorial continues to mark a bridge entry-point into Illinois; the Memorial is an unstaffed site operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

References

{{Coord, 38.683126, -87.536264, type:landmark_region:US-IL, display=title Buildings and structures in Lawrence County, Illinois Illinois State Historic Sites Outdoor sculptures in Illinois Protected areas of Lawrence County, Illinois 1938 sculptures Abraham Lincoln in art Monuments and memorials to Abraham Lincoln in the United States 1938 establishments in Illinois