Lincoln's New Salem - Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site

The current village was rebuilt on foundations of the original village mostly by the Civilian Conservation Corps, during the Great Depression. The location is presently a historic park, called Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, featuring 23 buildings, mostly log cabins and costumed interpreters, representing the era of Lincoln's residency. The cabins, shops and businesses are furnished by period implements, objects, and furniture, with many acquired from area farms and homes.

Twenty-two of the buildings are reconstructed; one log cabin, the Onstot Cooper Shop, is original, although it had been previously moved by Henry Onstot to Petersburg in 1840. In 1922, it was returned to New Salem on what archeologists believe was its original foundation. In addition to archeological investigations, much of the town was recreated based on period documents and the recollections and drawings of former residents interviewed in the late 19th century.

In the summer of 1961, after a period of design and fabrication, a 73-foot, 40-ton, upper-cabin sternwheel steamboat made its way from Dubuque, Iowa to New Salem by way of the Mississippi River, Illinois River, and the Sangamon River. The steamer, christened the Talisman, was a scaled down recreation of the original boat that ventured from Cincinnati, Ohio down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and into central Illinois on the Sangamon under the charter of Springfield businessman Vincent Bogue in 1832. The original Talisman was actually a 136-foot, 150-ton steamer, and may or may not have been a sidewheel boat. Lincoln helped clear obstructions from the riverbanks on the Talisman's trip upriver, and co-piloted the steamer with Rowan Herndon back to Beardstown. The recreation boat was given a landing next to the Rutledge Camron Saw and Grist Mill site on the riverbank, and tourists had the opportunity to take short excursions on the river. Unfortunately, just like the original Talisman, the recreated steamer was plagued by low water levels on the river which graudally diminished in the years following its arrival at New Salem, which made navigation difficult to impossible. The boat was finally grounded in the late 1990s a few miles upriver from the historical site, and now serves as a large lawn decoration about a hundred feet from the riverbank.

Lincoln's New Salem was visited by approximately 600,000 people in 2006. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, under the name, Lincoln's New Salem Village. The park includes a visitor's center with a museum and theater.

Active recreational infrastructure centers on the Mentor Graham Trail, 0.75 mi (1.21 km) long, and the Volksmarch Trail, 6 mi (9.7 km) long. The state park contains 200 campsites, including 100 electrical hookups.