I visited the second most visited cemetery in the United States, the most visited is Arlington National Cemetery.

This is Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. The main draw of this cemetery is the tomb of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

After Lincoln returned to Springfield on the funeral train he was placed in the Old State Capital for public viewing and then moved to Oak Ridge Cemetery where he was placed in a temporary vault.

The current memorial was dedicated October 15, 1874 and the 117 foot granite obelisk is the Memorial’s focal point.

In front of the vault is a bronze recasting of Gutzon Borglum’s head of Lincoln. Borglum is the sculptor behind the design of Mt. Rushmore. Lincoln’s nose is a shiny gold from the thousands and thousands of visitors who rub the nose for good luck.

Inside the tomb is where Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd, and three of his four boys: Edward “Eddie”, William “Willie”, and Thomas “Tad” are interred. His oldest son, Robert, is buried at Arlington.

In the vault is the red marble monument to Abraham Lincoln. On the wall above is the quote that Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin Stanton uttered at the President’s passing, “Now he belongs to the ages”