Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial to end entrance fee

LINCOLN CITY, Ind. – A national memorial in southwestern Indiana that pays homage to Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana childhood is ending its practice of charging an entrance fee.

Adults currently pay $5 to enter Spencer County’s Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. But Superintendent Kendell Thompson says visitors will pay no entrance fee starting Monday.

Thompson says the move is expected to increase the number of visitors to the site about 30 miles northeast of Evansville.

Lincoln lived in Spencer County from age 7 to 21. The Lincoln family’s log cabin no longer stands, but the homestead site is preserved at the national memorial, which includes a living-history farm, a museum and the grave of Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

The grave of Lincoln’s sister, Sarah Lincoln Grigsby, is about a mile away in Lincoln State Park.