Lincoln Boyhood National Monument, Indiana

In 1816, the Lincoln family moved for a second time, to a farm in Indiana, near Lincoln City (though it wasn’t called that then). This site is now the Lincoln Boyhood National Monument, and is also operated by the National Park Service. The Lincoln family lived there until 1830, so this is where Abraham Lincoln, who would become the nation’s 16^th president, spent most of his youth, from age seven to 21. In the 1930s, the site of the original cabin they lived in was discovered, with some degree of certainty, however the decision was made to not make a reconstruction. Instead, a ruined fireplace and sill beams outlining the walls were cast in bronze, and set on the ground, inside a walled perimeter. There are several other managed historic sites and reconstructed log cabins at places where Lincoln, or his relatives lived over the years. His presidential legacy may be the most physically dispersed of them all.