State Hwy 162, PO Box 1816, Lincoln City, IN 47552
Phone: 812-937-4541
Fax: 812-937-9929
Open All Year
Overview. When Abraham Lincoln was seven years old, his family moved from Kentucky to this site in southern Indiana, his home until he was 21. They lived in a log cabin which they carved from the wilderness. Abraham's father, Thomas, was a farmer and a carpenter. It was here that Lincoln mastered his lessons by candlelight; and it was here that he lost his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, when he was only nine years old. She is buried at the site, which is now set aside as a memorial to the boyhood of her famous and revered son. What to see and do. Learn about the pioneer history of the Indiana wilderness, and the life the Lincoln family led through the exhibits at the Memorial. A museum and two memorial halls commemorating both Lincoln and his mother are all part of the visitor center. You can watch "Here I Grew Up," a 24-minute film about Lincoln's boyhood in Indiana, and purchase books for further study at the center's bookstore. The Lincoln Boyhood Trail begins at the visitor center and leads past the grave of Lincoln's mother and the site of the original cabin to the Lincoln Living Historical Farm. Rangers in period costume demonstrate farm life of the 1820s at the re-created Indiana frontier homestead, complete with cabin, split rail fences, gardens, field crops, and farm animals. From the farm, the Trail of the Twelve Stones leads back to the grave site and the visitor center. The two trails together form a loop approximately a mile in length. A third trail, the Lincoln Boyhood Nature Trail, loops for a mile through a restored forest. The Memorial holds several celebrations annually. Lincoln Day celebrates our sixteenth president's birthday and is held on the Sunday closest to February 12. Visit in October, and you may catch the fall special event with its pioneer crafts demonstrations and special programs. In early December, The Memorial presents "December Holidays" with decorations and seasonal music. The visitor center is open daily from 8 AM to 5 PM except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Living History Farm operates daily from mid-April through September. It is not staffed from late October to the middle of April, but you are welcome to walk around the grounds and explore on your own. The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is one of the stops along the Lincoln Heritage Trail, an auto route that links sites important to Lincoln's history in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
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