We as a family are very interested in history and are fortunate to live in an area with several historical claims. We are close to St. Louis and all of the rich Lewis and Clark history and we are also close to Springfield with all of the Lincoln museums and such.
Last weekend The Man and I went to Lincoln's New Salem in Petersburg IL. Neither of us had been there since our grade school field trip and we'd been wanting to go back for a long time. The Youngun wasn't along as she was spending the week with The Aunt, The Uncle, and The Cousin.
It is a lovely historic village albeit a bit rundown due to lack of state funding and volunteers. There are gardens and a few re-enactors around. I'm sure during festivals there are more people there. I wish we lived closer so we could volunteer! It is still a lovely day trip and I got lots of nice pictures.
This is the Lincoln-Berry store where Abe was a part owner (and he wasn't a very good store-keeper either!)
This gentlemen was making those chairs you see. The one on the right was finished and he was making the one one the left. He makes them entirely by hand with period tools.
The inside of one of the cabins.
This is the mill. Very interesting and it's a ways away from the village and you actually walk on a covered bridge across the highway to get to it. This is where we got horrified.....The decay of our society as a whole never ceases to amaze and dismay me. Adults with no respect are raising children with even less. This is an historic site and a treasure to our state as well as our nation. I'm going to show you a particular piece of grafitti and please keep in mind that this was the LEAST of it.
Most of it wasn't fit to photograph. Obscene drawings and writings, along with the standard names and such. Awful. The Man said if we ever won the lotto we'd donate money to places such as these so they could install security cameras and punish these people to the fullest extent of the law. And the litter as well. Good grief people, do you just toss trash all over your homes?!? It made the both of us very sad.
All in all it was a nice trip though. On the way home we wanted to stop and eat at this cafe but it was closed. I'll leave you with a picture of the outside of it.
Morning Star Cafe
Till next time, I hope you are all fit and fab!
