Michigan trip Days 17 and 18

                                                 

                                                                               Day 17                                                                      

Travel day stopping at Starved Rock State Park before heading to Springfield, Illinois, Abe Lincoln's home for 17 years till he and his family moved into the White House when he was elected president in 1861 - just before the start of the Civil War.                                                                                         

Vernon thinks this is the first time he's seen 100 degrees displayed on the dashboard screen in his truck

 on our way to Springfield.  Whew!  We later learned that this was record breaking for this area.

Corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see! 

70% of the soybean crops in the US are for animal feed. The next biggest use is for human foods - oil etc. (It's one of the seed oils that causes inflammation in the body!)  Then a small percentage is for biofuel.  There are much smaller areas of organic soybean crops which must be used in the feed for animals when the meat we buy claims to be "organic" - meaning that the soybeans that the animal consumed were not genetically modified to be "Round-Up ready". Genetically modified (GMO) soybeans are able to survive and grow in spite the herbicides (mostly cancer causing glyphosate) sprayed on them.

Go small farms and healthy soil!

We saw several of these big grain bin and even bigger grain elevator operations in central Illinois.

Starved Rock is a 125 foot high bluff over the Illinois River.  According to the legend, an Ottawa war-chief as murdered by an Illinois tribe member. Then "seeking revenge, the Ottawa and Potawatomi attacked the Illinois village near Starved Rock.  The Illinois fled from their village and took refuge on top of 'The Rock' . . .Surrounded by enemy tribes, the Illinois were not able to get food or water.  It was said the entire village 'starved' to death on this very site!"  Period documents show that this legend may not have been entirely accurate!

The view of the Illinois River lock and dam from Starved Rock

The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) was part of FDR's New Deal to put people back to work, and build morale after the Great Depression. In Illinois alone -- these camps 'employed' over 165,000 young men  who dug out nearly 1200 trails, constructed shelters and lodges and planted 60 million trees throughout the "Land of Lincoln".  The sign says the young workers got "$1 a day, 3 Hots and a flop!"

"The CCC shaped lives, taught the value of land stewardship, supplied valuable work skills, education, comradery, and left a legacy of projects throughout the Nation's parks and forests".

The Starving Rock State Park visitor's center shows ways to provide shelter for some of the birds experiencing loss of habitat.

Some of the animals in the state park.

After our hike to Starved Rock, it was too hot to eat lunch in the camper, so we brought it out to a picnic table under a sycamore tree and enjoyed a breeze.

Looking up into the beautiful sycamore tree.

At our campsite in the Double J Campground just south of Springfield - we have a view of Interstate 55 (which is a part of the old Route 66) which has lots of semi-truck traffic.  But we don't hear it with the air conditioning going constantly!

Day 18

Today was a Lincoln day.  We spent most of the day at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.  Here is the wax figure Lincoln family standing in front of the replica of the second level of the White House.  You see this when you first enter the impressive Lincoln Museum. 

We braved the drizzly weather and started the day at the Lincoln home in downtown Springfield.

A view from the back yard.  A middle class home in a middle class neighborhood.  He and his family lived here and he had a law practice for 17 years till he moved to the White House in 1861.  The tour guide said he loved cats and would often bring strays home.  And that he was a competitive wrestler.

This was the tiny desk in his bedroom where the 6 ft 4 inch man did law work, wrote speeches and probably prepared for the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

The museum featured a replica of the crowded one room log cabin in Knob Creek, Indiana (with a loft for the two boys to sleep) where Lincoln spent much of his youth. The girls slept on a small platform - shown covered by the red blanket -- next to his parent's bed.  Here he is reading by the light of the fire.  His mother died when he was 9 and his father remarried a woman, Sarah Bush Johnston and they had 3 more children.  She was the one who encouraged Abe to read.

The museum highlighted some of the horrors of slavery such as breaking up families since they were usually sold individually.

The caption here reads:  "The slave, Gordon was whipped on Christmas Day, 1862.  Soon after he escaped from his master and joined the Union Army to fight for freedom.  These scars remained long after."

This says that by 1860 almost four million men, women, and children lived in bondage - one of every seven people in America.  In some states, such as South Carolina, over half of the population lived in slavery.

Abraham Lincoln and Mary Ann Todd courting at Mary's sister's house in Springfield.  Mary's sister said, "Mary led the conversation - Lincoln would listen and gaze on her as if drawn by some superior power."

These wax figures were amazing.

One of the Lincoln-Douglass debates in 1858.  Lincoln did not win the senate race but the debates that were held and reported on all over the country, and with his debating skills he "established a national reputation".

The main difference between these two candidates was on the issue of slavery.  Douglass approved of the expansion of slavery into the free territories according to the will - the votes of the people (called popular sovereignty). Lincoln argued that slavery was wrong and should be put on the road to gradual extinction.  The caption also says that Lincoln joked that popular sovereignty was thin gruel indeed, akin to "the homeopathic soup made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death". 

"The Whispering Gallery - Personal and political attacks greet the new president"  It says that these attacks - from all sides -- did not weaken his resolve to preserve the Union.

Mrs. Lincoln and her seamstress and confidante, Elizabeth Keckly:

Enslaved at birth, she made enough money to buy freedom for herself and her son in 1855.  Her son was killed in the war effort.  She remembered that Mary was full of  "golden words of comfort" during that devastating period.

Dresses worn by prominent ladies of the era

The Lincolns lost a second son - 11 year old Willie while in the White House.  They had lost a four year old son to "consumption" while still in Springfield.

This talks about their grief over Willie's death.  

Abolitionist, Horace Greeley's criticism that Lincoln is not pursuing a more aggressive policy of emancipation

Lincoln's answer to Horace Greeley's criticism - in part he says that preservation of the Union was his primary objective.

The battle of Gettysburg - over 52,000 casualties.  July 1 - 3, 1863.  There were so many dead bodies that a decision was made to turn parts of the battlefield itself into a huge cemetery.  On November 19, Lincoln helped to consecrate the land by giving a short (3 minute) speech that came to be known as the Gettysburg Address.

The Gettysburg Address

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated can long endure. . . . . . . that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the  people, shall not perish from the earth"  

Wow - so much said in so few words.  Thank you Abraham Lincoln for all the hard work and sacrifices you made for your family and your country.

We got to enjoy a lovely Italian lunch after the museum tour -- we are so blessed in this country to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that we do.  Much is due to strong leaders like President Lincoln.