Lincoln's New Salem Village

Lincoln's New Salem Village is a reconstructed 1830s frontier settlement on a hill above the Sangamon River south of Petersburg, Illinois, now part of a state park. Its log cabins, stores, a tavern, a school used for church services and a mill stand on their original sites, many on original stone foundations and piers. Only the Onstot Cooper Shop is primarily original; the rest were rebuilt in 1932-33 by the State of Illinois with the National Park Service, after extensive research into cabin styles, locations and even plant types. The village matters because Abraham Lincoln lived here from 1831 to 1837. He clerked in a grocery, ran a mill, partnered in a store, served as postmaster, enlisted in the Black Hawk War, studied surveying and law, and won election to the Illinois General Assembly in 1834. The restoration itself is regarded as a landmark in American historic preservation.