Lincoln's New Salem

Lincoln's New Salem, Menard County in the U.S. state of Illinois is dedicated to the memory of Abraham Lincoln's open air museum. It was built in the 1930s as a reconstruction at the site of the abandoned prairie town of New Salem, where the later U.S. president had 100 years previously spent his first adult years.

The historic New Salem

As a settlement existed New Salem, which belonged in the 19th century to the Sangamon County, only slightly longer than a decade. The village was founded in 1828 around 30 kilometers north- west of Springfield on Sangamon, a left tributary of the Illinois River. This year, James Rutledge and John Camron built on the river bank, a flour mill, and sold parcels in the vicinity of other settlers who settled there soon. The population increased rapidly in the early years, but went back after not New Salem, but the neighboring Petersburg was designated as the seat of the county. For loss of importance and rapid decline of the local also contributed to the fact that the Sangamon River insufficiently suitable for steam navigation. As early as 1840, the place was deserted again.

From 1831 to 1837, the young Abraham Lincoln lived in New Salem and took there his first steps in politics. He settled in the village, after he left his parents' home at the age of 22 years. Initially he worked as a merchant's assistant, and later as a postmaster, surveyor, general store and in other professions. In 1832 he first ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the state legislature of Illinois. In the next start-up, two years later, he was elected as a representative of Sangamon County and held this mandate for 12 years until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives.

At Lincoln's time there was in New Salem in addition to private homes and the flour mill, inter alia, a cooper's workshop, a forge and other craft shops, a wool combing, several shops, a tavern, two surgeries and a schoolhouse, which served as a church at the same time. Although never lived more than 20 to 25 families in New Salem, it was - in terms of local conditions - not a farming village but a town that lived by trade. It moved temporarily on business, service and craftsmen who tried their luck at the Frontier, the settlement boundary. Lincoln, who had trained alongside his changing professional activities in the self-study for lawyers, retired in 1837 from New Salem in the nearby capital of Springfield, where he opened a law practice. A few years later, New Salem was abandoned.

The open air museum

Today's open-air museum New Salem extends over about 2.8 square kilometers and next to a visitor center with museum and theater includes 23 reconstructed buildings. The historic park is operated by a nonprofit organization, the New Salem Lincoln League. It is open all year round and counted in 2006 about 600,000 visitors.

The establishment of Lincoln's New Salem was mainly in the 1930s, partly as a job creation measure during the Great Depression. The 23 buildings are mostly reconstructions of log houses in the style of the 1830s. The only original is the former workshop of Henry Cooper Onstot, which had been demolished in 1840 and rebuilt in adjacent Petersburg. In 1922, she was again taken back to New Salem, at the same point at which it had originally been, according to archaeologists.

All the buildings are decorated in the style of the time, lived in Lincoln in New Salem. Many of the furnishings and utensils are antiques from farm houses in the area. Even amateur actors in historical costumes make the 1830s back to life. The reconstruction of the place is not only based on archaeological evidence and contemporary documents, but also drawings and memories of former residents that have already been collected in the late 19th century.