Knob Creek

The thing about a road trip is that you visit new places and learn new things. For one thing, I learned that Knob Creek is not just the name of a bourbon, but also a town in Kentucky. For another, I thought that Abraham Lincoln was born in Illinois. It turns out he was from Kentucky.

While driving along on pretty Kentucky roads, passed his old school house, and stopped by Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home at Knob Creek, part of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park.

In an 1860 letter Lincoln said, "The place on Knob Creek ... I remember very well; but I was not born there .... My earliest recollection, however, is of the Knob Creek place." 

Remember that story you read as a kid where Lincoln lives in a log cabin and reads by candlelight? Well, that cabin was torn down in 1870, but this one was reconstructed on the original site in 1931, possibly including logs from Austin Gollaher's home (Lincoln's schoolmate who rescued him from drowning in the creek). How cool is that? The cabin is tiny. 10 feet by 10 feet maybe? No running water, no electricity (hence the candle), but set on lovely grounds. The site was closed, probably due to the budget cuts (don't get me started on that!), so we could not see the inside of the cabin.