Abe lincolns log cabin home

Lerna, Illinois

The signs for this attraction call it "Lincoln Log Cabin," and its brochure promotes it with a picture of Abe and the tagline, "Lincoln Log Cabin, Where 1845 Comes Alive." But Abe Lincoln was born in 1809.

Was America's 16th President still living in a log cabin when he was 36 years old?

Well, no.

This is actually Abe Lincoln's parents' log cabin, which they built and lived in for 14 years after Abe had left home to climb the political ladder in Springfield.

And it's not even the real cabin, but a replica, built in the 1930s as a Depression make-work project.

Abe lincolns log cabin home builders

The real cabin was sold to a group of Chicago investors who wanted to display it at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. But Robert Todd Lincoln, Abe's son and a powerful Chicago lawyer at the time, killed the deal because he was embarrassed by the crude-looking house.

The cabin was reduced to a pile of logs in a Chicago alley, and then it was thrown away.

This fake