• The First Lincoln Memorial

    Abraham Lincoln Birthplace

    National Historical Park Kentucky

Nature & Science

A view of Sinking Spring. The water source for the Lincoln Family during their time on the birthplace farm.

Sinking Spring

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP was established to commemorate the site on which Abraham Lincoln was born, but over the years the Park Service's responsibility has expanded to caring for the natural environment at the Birthplace Unit and the Lincoln Boyhood Home Unit at Knob Creek.

Visitors at each of these sites have an opportunity to experience the pristine waters of Sinking Spring and Knob Creek, view the varied wildlife and hike amid the hardwood forests of Central Kentucky.

The park is part of the Cumberland Piedmont Network which consists of 14 parks with diverse cultural and natural resources distributed across seven states and six different physiographic regions.

Did You Know?

Picture of the Boundary Oak Tree

A large white oak tree at the Sinking Spring Farm first served as a specified boundary marker in an 1805 survey of the farm. The oak became known as the Boundary Oak and was thought to be 28 years old at the time of Lincoln's birth. The tree eventually died in 1976 and was later found to be 195 years old.