History Detective

Here is the mysterious brick path in our yard. I still need to work on removing more of the dirt from the bricks, but it looks kind of cool and rustic right now. The second picture is of the strange area at the end of the brick path where I have been finding pieces of old glass, porcelain, and other interesting little things. I think that the place at the end of the path used to be a fire pit or something like that because I keep finding what looks like charred wood under the dirt. With the way that the flowers are planted along the path, I wonder if our house used to have a cool little garden area. Maybe we can restore it to its former splendor! We put a bird feeder out there by the brick path because we have the cutest pet cardinal in the whole world. We named him Louie (for the St. Louie Cardinals). Big Spike found Louie in the bushes last year when Louie was just a baby, and Greg saved him from Big Spike. Then Louie got stuck in the garage and Greg rescued him, so now he just hangs out by our house singing songs all day. He (and his many girlfriends) now love to hang around our house even more with the bird feeder out there. All of the neighborhood birds love it--except one ungrateful bird who pooped on Greg yesterday. I am enjoying my day off and the beautiful weather outside. While Greg is at a funeral this evening, I think I'll go over and watch the Athens High School soccer game.

Hooray for IHPA and Teddy Roosevelt

FINALLY! Illinois is slowly but surely recovering from the damages done by the evil dictator Blago. Yesterday my friend Linda started back to work with IHPA, and today the Dana-Thomas House, one of Springfield's biggest attractions, reopened. Click here to read about the big celebration. And here is a link to an excellent article Mom found in the Chicago Tribune: "State Historic Sites to Reopen Next Week." I still can't believe that the historic sites were ever shut down. I have only been at the Lincoln Home for a few weeks, and I can't tell you how many visitors have expressed disappointment and dismay that the governor would have ever closed the sites. Thankfully that will change now. Even the smaller sites, like the Pierre Menard Home in the southern part of the state, will be reopening. They are still trying to hire staff back, so the opening date for the other sites has yet to be determined, but at least the reopening process has begun.

Today was another busy day at work, but at least I have once again made it to my weekend. I also had one especially fun tour today--there were some people from Thailand! I told them that my sister spent some time there, so my family loves their country; and when I said, "Sawatdeekah," they were so excited. They all wanted to have their picture taken with me after the tour :-)

I have a new dilemma to figure out at work: what to do with Teddy Roosevelt. There is a Theodore Roosevelt re-enactor named Gib who wants to come do something at the Lincoln Home. The Chief of Interpretation handed the situation off to me and said that having Teddy come to the site would be a good idea, but I need to figure out why a Teddy Roosevelt program would be relevant to the Lincoln Home. Well, they are both on Mount Rushmore . . . . I know I could round up an Abe Lincoln re-enactor, but then I'd have to find Thomas Jefferson and George Washington too. Hmmmm. One of the other perplexing assignments I've been given is figuring out something to do to commemorate Constitution Day in September. Maybe I could have Teddy Roosevelt come for Constitution Day? That would kill two birds with one stone. I love Teddy Roosevelt. In fact, one of my favorite Mississippi adventures was when I stumbled across the town where the Teddy Bear was born: Onward, Mississippi. It was there that Theodore Roosevelt went bear hunting, and some people he was with chained up a bear so that he could shoot it. He refused, however, to shoot a chained bear and had it released. Cartoons about the incident evolved into the creation of the Teddy Bear. It was in Onward, Mississippi that I had the most delicious sweet potato fries I have ever tasted. But there aren't any bears in downtown Springfield--or sweet potato fries that I know of. So, I'll have to figure out something to do with Teddy Roosevelt--if they will ever give me time to work on things! We have been so busy with tours that there hasn't been time for anything else. Tours are good though. I love telling people about Abraham Lincoln.

Guns 'n' Ghosts

I am quickly learning that there is never a dull moment at Abraham Lincoln's house. Today was quite a day! We almost had to go into lock down after getting a call from the Grace Episcopal Church located at the northwest end of the park--just across the parking lot from the visitor center. The National Park Service technically owns the church building, but the congregation is leasing it from the government. So anyway, we got a call at the visitor center this morning asking for help and claiming that there was a man with a gun at the church who was threatening to shoot everyone. Yikes! Our law enforcement rangers and the Springfield Police Department rushed to the scene. It turns out that the man didn't really have a gun--just a crowbar, and they were able to arrest him before he did any harm. But that was pretty scary! Everyone was kind of on edge after that one.

A little while later I was the ranger assigned to patrol the neighborhood. It was kind of like someone opened a big can of weirdness in Springfield this morning. The first incident involved a domestic dispute. This man and woman came walking down the street right through the center of the park, yelling, screaming and swearing at each other. I don't think I've ever heard so many expletives dropped in such a short amount of time. I called law enforcement on the radio, but they had their hands full with the crow bar guy, so we had to just let the disgruntled couple swear their way out of the neighborhood. Then a drunk guy came riding through the neighborhood on his bike. He pulled up to the Arnold House, where we have some exhibits, and said in a slurred voice, "Iddis wheda mooveehowz idat?" It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying, but I finally figured it out: "Is this where the movie house is at?" Random question. Answer: No. So then he wandered around the neighborhood for a while--or should I say stumbled--and then left. Then two more guys came walking down the street and introduced themselves as "Brother Paul" and "Brother John." They were looking for a clothes store where they could buy belts and shoes. They had pretty shifty eyes, and when one of the other rangers was pointing in their direction (the ranger was just pointing out one of the other houses in the neighborhood to his tour group), Brother John said, "Hey man, he's pointin' us out. Let's get outta here." So Brother John took off, but Brother Paul was too busy telling me how wonderful history is and how Abraham Lincoln saved the world. Then he started to cry. Seriously. I was thinking to myself, "Could this day get any more strange?" Thankfully it did not get more strange. After Brother Paul finally went on his way, the rest of the afternoon was relatively uneventful--though it was very busy. But busy is normal.

Something that is not normal, however, is the weird stuff that has been going on in the Lincoln Home lately. I've heard ghost stories about the house, but during ranger training we were told that when visitors ask if the house is haunted, we are to say simply, "Not that I know of." Well, it turns out that things really aren't that simple. A number of rangers have had some pretty crazy experiences there. Lately some strange things have been happening like old deadbolts on the doors locking, things getting moved around in bedrooms, and items getting knocked to the floor when no one has been in the room. Supposedly things were especially crazy at the time of the Bicentennial back in February. I don't know quite what to make of it all, but I guess I wouldn't blame the Lincolns' spirits for being a little unrestful. But I'll stick to the story that I don't know anything :-)

Mason Brayman

Today, while doing research for the cell phone tour of the Lincoln neighborhood, I discovered that one of Lincoln's neighbors had some very interesting connections. His name was Mason Brayman, and he lived just down the street from the Lincolns from 1851-1855. Back in 1843 he had been assigned by the infamous Governor Thomas Ford to go to Nauvoo in response to rumors that the Mormons were forming an army. Governor Ford had been informed that Joseph Smith was wanted in Missouri for the attempted assassination of Governor Boggs, so he wanted Mason Brayman to assess that situation as well. I haven't been able to find anything about what the results of that 1843 visit were, but after the martyrdom took place in 1844, Mason Brayman went back to Nauvoo to try to keep the peace. He sent a letter back to Governor Ford informing him that all was chaos in Nauvoo. He then met with Brigham Young and other church leaders to figure out a peaceful way for the Mormons to leave the state. Unfortunately the circumstances under which the Mormons had to leave Illinois two years later did not turn out to be very ideal or peaceful. So Mason Brayman had a Mormon connection and a Lincoln connection--then during the Civil War he was part of an Illinois regiment and became the commanding officer of the NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI post in 1864! How totally interesting is that? He later became the governor of Idaho which is kind of random. I am enjoying this chance to learn about the Lincoln neighbors. Today I finished the tour outline, and my next job will be to finish the tour script.

I am really enjoying my job at the Lincoln Home. Our final visitor count for last Thursday--the insanely crazy day--was almost 1,700! Tomorrow we have 20 buses coming to the park, so it should be another busy one. Today I got some exciting news: they are going to maybe sell my Zion book at the Lincoln Home bookstore! That would be cool. My boss Mike said that he had some visitors from one of my tours tell him the other day that I was "kind and knowledgeable." So that made me feel good.

Greg is being kept busy by the dead people. In fact, the other day we had to make a quick trip to St. Louis to pick up a body at the hospital there. Greg asked if I wanted to go with him into the morgue, but I told him I would pass on that one. :-)