May 2

Had a delay in posting anything about the 2nd of May because the WiFi in the hotel was not working. Tonight’s hotel (May 3) has working WiFi, so adding yesterday’s details, today. Got that?

I arrived at the Lincoln Home NHS at 8:30 AM, when the VC opened, to get a ticket for the first house tour, at 9 AM. Enough people then showed up to “sell out” the 9 AM showing. By the way, the tickets are free. And then five vans of 3rd graders showed up for a special tour… yes, parents were driving. Thankfully, they went after us. I still had two parks to get to after Abe. But it is great to see kids getting to our National Parks, even if they might get in the way of my schedule at some point. The entire block on which the house sits has been purchased by the NPS. A couple of homes were reconditioned and refurbished so visitors can experience the 1850s. The house was not obtained by the NPS until 1972. At that time, a Piggly Wiggly stood across the street from Abe’s home. Crushed stone streets and raised wooden walkways do give the sense of some time travel.

Ted, our guide, mentioned the house’s structure is basically original, so we were not to lean, stand on, or hit any of the walls or floors. Well, we were allowed to stand on certain carpeting, but not any of the wood itself. Almost half of the artifacts in the house are original to the Lincoln family, including Abe’s favorite desk and Mary’s favorite kitchen stove/oven. As with George Washington’s HQs at Valley Forge, the handrailing to the 2nd floor is original and visitors can hold on to it as they go upstairs. In hindsight, I wish I could have seen the faces of the school kids when their guide said they were touching the same railing that Mr. Lincoln did. The house began very small, but Abe and Mary kept adding rooms. They installed an outhouse in the backyard, providing three holes and seats. This was a sign of opulence. Back inside, our group paused for a few moments as we looked in the parlor, the place where Republican party representatives met Lincoln in 1860 to offer him the candidacy for the office of President of the United States. Again, you can read about this in history books, but to be standing right where Lincoln did makes you really feel the history.

Not much to write about for the newest unit in the National Park Service. New Philadelphia NHS is #424. Right now the acreage is about four, or at least that is what I thought when viewing the lot just off County Road 2. I-72 runs right from Lincoln’s home to the first town planned and registered by an African American person prior to the Civil War. The town’s life was brief, from 1836 to 1885. When a new railroad line declined to run by the town, the death knell was heard. Excavations have found three foundations. Three buildings from the surrounding communities were brought to the site and placed on the foundations, to help preserve them. It took me more time to drive into the town of Barry, to find the Passport stamp than it did to visit the site itself. Even though Eastern National has not provided the standard-issue stamp, both City Hall and City Library have a large circular stamp, which states the New Philadelphia site was on the UGRR. The NPS website says work is beginning to bring visitor experiences to the park.

Route US 36 pretty much took me from Barry over to Homestead NHP (did have to go a bit north, into Nebraska). This is another park with not much to see, compared to many other parks. There is a one-room schoolhouse, a wonderful Education Center with displays, and a state-of-the-art VC. A large plot of grassland lies between the two centers. A path has been cut through the grass for visitors to experience the plains of the 1800s. If it was not for the Homestead Act of 1862, this country might look a lot different today. 270 million acres of land was opened up by the Federal Government for folks to buy. A good guess is many of the boundaries made during those sales are still in place today across the Midwest and West.