Afterwards
The abandoned Lincoln cabin remained on the site and was re-used as a school house and a farm building. It was ignored until 1865 when it was dismantled and shipped for public viewing to Chicago; Boston Common; and finally the private museum in New York City operated by showman P.T. Barnum. After that, the cabin was lost to history and its ultimate fate is unknown.
The abandoned Lincoln farmstead was later settled by the Whitley family, who lived at the site for several generations; the Whiteleys built a dam across the Sangamon River to power a small flour mill.
The state memorial, created in 1938 on the Whitley site, now serves as a park and picnic area for the greater Decatur, Illinois metropolitan area. The park contains mature second-growth bottomland timber, including black walnut trees; the Whitleys' pioneer cemetery; and the remains of the flour mill and dam on the Sangamon River. The park was formally dedicated in 1957.
Archeologists have not yet discovered any evidence of the exact location of the Lincoln family's 1830–1831 cabin, and the cabin may have been located within or slightly outside the state memorial boundary.
Read more about this topic: Lincoln Trail Homestead State Memorial