Rural Ky. town of Lincoln's birth marks his 200th

On the 16th president's 200th birthday today, the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site near Hodgenville, Ky., "is open to visitors – as long as you stay on the sidewalk," reports Linda Ireland of the LaRue County Herald News. She sent us a photo showing damage caused by the ice storm that hit Kentucky more than two weeks ago, but technical difficulties prevent us from displaying it.

"Even though the park was not fully accessible, there was still a crowd – visitors from Switzerland, Wisconsin, Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland," Ireland reports in an e-mail to The Rural Blog. "Abe would have been proud of their tenacity."

Locals hoped that President Obama would visit the birthplace today, but he chose to go to his home state of Illinois and the capital of Springfield, where Lincoln lived when elected. In Hodgenville, the U.S. Mint exchanged old pennies for new ones featuring an engraving of the cabin that the memorial houses. (The cabin is a replica but may contain logs from the actual birth cabin.) "The ceremony is part of a two-year commemoration of Lincoln’s birth," Ireland notes. "The national kickoff, scheduled in Hodgenville Feb. 12, 2008, was canceled due to wintry weather." (Read more)