Locations | Resources | About | Materials
1. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park, Hodgenville, Kentucky
The 116 acre park highlights Thomas Lincoln’s (Abraham’s father) Sinking Spring Farm. An early 19th century Kentucky cabin, enshrined in the neo-classic building at left, represents the birth site of our nation’s 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Fifty-six steps up to the cabin represent the number of years Abraham lived. Also at the site is the original Sinking Spring from which the young Lincoln family drew their water.
At the AL Birthplace Historic Park, educators and students may learn some of the difficulties of pioneer living, such as splitting rails. Wood was needed for many things on the frontier: homes, heating, cooking, livestock containment, protection, tools, games (checkers)… Splitting logs required patience, muscles, and lots of hard work. Splitting logs also required a series of wedges each bigger than its predecessor. A type of sledge hammer (wooden glut) was needed to pound the wedges into the logs. A family was lucky to have any type of metal hammers or wedges. These metal tools would have been considered a valuable inheritance from fathers to sons.
Abraham Lincoln became a champion rail-splitter while a young man in Indiana and Illinois. The term was applied to Lincoln while running for office in 1860, “Abraham Lincoln, The Rail Candidate For President in 1860”. The term represented his humble beginnings as a surveyor, postmaster, soldier, shop keeper, farmer and more. The “common” people identified with Mr. Lincoln. Leaders on the east coast, D.C. area, used the term to demean Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln as they were too “common” and not “elite” enough to lead a nation.
The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site offers a small, but very informative museum and short video about the young Lincoln family’s lifestyle.
The lifesized young Lincoln family bronze stands at the entry-way of the museum.
The museum presents the young Lincoln family’s lifestyle: cast iron pots for cooking (which were extremely valuable and hard to obtain), candle and soap molds for making candles and soaps, wool and plant fibers for making cloth and other textiles, tea cakes and much more.
National Park Service Ranger Stephen Brown introducing the group to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park. The landscape is similar to that of the Abraham Lincoln time period with little change made by humans.
Nancy Wolfe holding one wedge that was utilized to split rails (logs). Wedges of various sizes were needed to split the rail from one end through the the other end. A narrower wedge was used to start the split; as the split became larger, a larger wedge would be inserted.
Part of the group walking up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial encasing a reconstructed log cabin reminiscent of the Lincoln era. 
Tallia Del Bianco holding a sample of wool, from local sheep. Wool would have been a valuable resource as it was used to make many items: thread, fabrics...
Metal supplies, like this pot above, would have been a family heirloom as these resources would have been very difficult to obtain in the "wilderness" or frontier. Also, metal wedges would have been extremely valuable and passed from father to son.
Looking down from the top of the Lincoln Memorial toward a United States flag.
A sign placed at the ALBNHS briefly describes life for the early Lincoln frontier family. 
Another sign briefly discusses the establishment and building of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. 
The neoclassical structure surrounding a reconstructed log cabin, similar to the cabin the young Lincoln family lived in, was designed by John Russell Pope as a memorial to one of America's iconic figures.