(The following story by Lori Rackl appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times website on May 6, 2009.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Everybody knows this Saturday is National Train Day. By everybody, I mean me and a bunch of train geeks.
But here’s something a lot of people really do know: This year marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
To honor all of the above, I took a day trip on Amtrak’s aptly named Lincoln Service to Springfield, the hometown of our 16th president.
Illinois’ capital makes an ideal train getaway for a couple of reasons. One: Amtrak runs five round trips daily between Chicago and Springfield. Two: Springfield’s train station is within walking distance of most of the city’s sites, making it easy to get around on foot once you’re there.
I hopped on the first train out of Union Station at 7 a.m., settled into my window seat with a much-needed cup of coffee and box of doughnut holes and let the gently rocking rhythm of the train lull me into a welcome trance. The cityscape quickly gave way to pancake-flat plains and farmland gearing up for spring.
“Planes are faster, but you don’t see anything from the air,” commented a fellow passenger named Don Peel, the kind of guy who probably knows Saturday is National Train Day. The friendly 77-year-old from Belleville was headed back Downstate after a quick trip to Chicago to catch a concert.
“Driving’s fine, but it’s not as scenic, and you’ve got to pay attention to the road,” he said. “You can’t beat the train.”
The muffled sound of Amtrak’s horn blew virtually nonstop as we chugged past leafless trees, grain elevators and old stretches of the original Route 66.
After three hours, the dome of the State Capitol — 74 feet taller than its counterpart in Washington, D.C. — came into view. It was only 10 a.m., so I had the whole day to Lincoln it up.
First stop: the must-see Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, four blocks from the train station.
Opened in 2005, this massive complex is full of thoughtfully displayed documents and artifacts, such as Lincoln’s famous stovepipe hat, the blood-stained gloves he had in his pocket that fateful night at Ford’s Theatre and tools used to break into his Springfield tomb — a bizarre plot to ransom Lincoln’s body in exchange for freeing an inmate in the state pen in Joliet.
The real appeal of the museum doesn’t come from standing in front of a glass case staring at the Gettysburg Address. It comes from the entertaining exhibits and theatrical experiences that bring Lincoln to life in a way the history books can’t. Disney-worthy holographic special effects and lifelike reproductions of everything from his boyhood log cabin to his time in the White House kept me captivated during my 2Ω hour visit, well worth the $10 price of admission.
Be forewarned: the museum can get overrun with school groups. (Roughly 150,000 students tour the capital each year.) Think about timing your visit for late afternoon, Fridays or summer to avoid field trip overload.
Lincoln lived in Springfield for nearly 24 years, and his Size 14 footprints are all over the capital. (Check out visitspringfieldill inois.com and lookingforlin coln.com.) A lot of the sites associated with the Railsplitter either charge nothing or ask for a small donation, so you can pinch those Lincoln pennies.
One freebie worth a visit is the Lincoln Home, the only house Honest Abe ever owned. He bought the $1,500 cottage at the corner of Eighth and Jackson streets in 1844.
The house is in a pedestrian-only historic zone and looks like it did — right down to the outhouse in the backyard — when Lincoln lived here with Mary and their four sons. Tours led by National Park Service rangers are free, as mandated by Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert, the only one of the four boys to live past the age of 18. The park service has scheduled a yearlong series of bicentennial programs; nps.gov/liho.
From Lincoln’s house, it’s a short stroll to the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln argued before the state Supreme Court and delivered his famous “House Divided” speech. (It’s also where Barack Obama announced his presidential bid.)
A crowd of 75,000 people poured through the Old State Capitol 144 years ago this month to pay their respects to Lincoln, who lay in state here. His body had been brought back to Springfield from Washington by train, on the same tracks that took the newly elected president to the White House four years earlier.
On the day Lincoln left his beloved Springfield, much of the town turned up at what’s now the Lincoln Depot to give him a hero’s farewell. You can drop by the restored depot (10th and Monroe streets) to watch a video depiction of the emotional speech Lincoln gave as he said goodbye to Springfield before boarding his train.
Come 7:33 p.m., it’s time for you to do the same.