Lincoln Trail Memorial near Lawrenceville undergoing state-funded rehabilitation work to prepare for Lincoln Bicentennial

LAWRENCEVILLE - The memorial that marks the spot where Abraham Lincoln first set foot in Illinois is getting a face-lift.

Rehabilitation work on the Lincoln Trail State Memorial along Highway 33 at the Illinois-Indiana state line has begun. The $19,700 project is funded by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA), which owns the memorial. The site is managed jointly by IHPA and the National Park Service's George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes, Indiana and is across the Wabash River from downtown Vincennes.

"All eyes are focused on Lincoln sites in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois as we count down to the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 2009," said IHPA Director Jan Grimes. "The Lincoln Trail Memorial east of Lawrenceville denotes an important part of the story and marks the beginning of Abraham Lincoln's 30 years in Illinois."

The IHPA has hired Russell-Marti Conservation Services, Inc. of Missouri to perform the specialized work on the memorial. The firm is cleaning and treating the memorial's limestone and bronze, and making repairs to the Lincoln statue, including the replacement of a cast bronze stick that had been broken by vandals. The work is expected to take several more weeks. The Lincoln Trail Memorial has been affected by corrosion, staining, vandalism, and the deterioration of limestone joints since its last major state-funded conservation treatment in 1988.

The Lincoln Trail State Memorial marks the location where, according to tradition, Abraham Lincoln entered Illinois with his family in March 1830. The monument, sculpted by Nellie Verne Walker, was commissioned by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and dedicated in 1938, when it was presented to the State of Illinois. The memorial is a full-length bronze figure of Lincoln set within a sculptured limestone wall panel that depicts three adults and two children walking beside an ox-driven covered wagon, with an angel leading them to their new home.