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Looking for Lincoln in Illinois

In Illinois, the Land of Lincoln.  

All along the Lincoln Highway one sees statues (and a lot else) commemorating America’s 16th President. At the eastern end of the Lincoln, I had my first encounter with a Lincoln statue in Jersey City at the very impressive 1930 statue in Lincoln Park in spring 2016; near the western terminus, in San Francisco, there’s a fine 1926 Lincoln sculpture at Civic Center by the Polk Street entrance to City Hall – I am originally from the SF Bay Area and have passed it many times.  

In Illinois it is hard not to miss the numerous statues and monuments honoring Lincoln – Illinois takes its strong ties to Abraham Lincoln very seriously.  

Here is a sampling from the September 2016 Lincoln Highway drive.  The second picture is a detail of the Arche Memorial Fountain in Chicago Heights where the Lincoln and the Dixie meet.  The fourth and fifth pictures are of the “Soldier Statue” (1930) in Dixon with a young Abraham Lincoln as captain of a company of volunteer militia in 1832 during the Black Hawk War; it is said to be the only statue of Lincoln in uniform.