Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial Reveals Youthful Influences

Learn more about the youthful influences that made Abraham Lincoln great by visiting the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, a farmstead in Lincoln City, Indiana, where the future 16th president lived from 1816 to 1830. While living at what is now the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial farm, Lincoln lost his mother and sister.

Less than an 80-minute drive west of Louisville and just 45 minutes east of Evansville, IN, the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial gives a picture of the Great Emancipator, particularly his growing distaste for slavery, compassion for others, respect for education and hard work and  belief in the importance of honesty and a good sense of humor.

Start your tour of Indiana's first national park by heading to the Memorial Visitor Center, where you can catch a 15-minute orientation film. Five sculpted limestone panels measuring eight by nearly 14 feet on the visitor center's exterior depict phases of Lincoln's life: Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois; Washington, D.C., and Lincoln's legacy. Renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the genius behind New York City's Central Park, designed the landscaping that surrounds the visitor's center.

Then take the trail to Pioneer Cemetery and the burial plot of Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Lincoln's older sister, Sarah Lincoln Grigsby, who died in childbirth in 1828, is buried nearby in Little Pigeon Baptist Church cemetery.

Further on is the Lincoln Living Historical Farm, which recreates a pioneer homestead, complete with a cabin, outbuildings, split-rail fences, docile farm animals, gardens and crops. While the farm contains no structure dating to Lincoln's time there, costumed interpreters demonstrate farming, cooking, chores and crafts dating to the 1820s. 

If you enjoy your visit to Lincoln's Boyhood Home in Indiana, be sure to visit Lincoln's boyhood home in Hodgenville, KY, two hours away by car. Lincoln lived at that site from age 2 until the Lincoln family moved northwest to Indiana. The Lincolns moved yet further west to Illinois in 1830.

Lincoln's Boyhood National Memorial is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time except for the months of December through February, when the park closes an hour earlier. The national park is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. The Living Historical Farm is open only from mid-April through September.

Lincoln's boyhood home Abraham Lincoln President Lincoln 16th president president of the United States Civil War War Between the States Indiana Lincoln City Evansville Louisville