Davis sites gain visits amid Lincoln 200th fervor
KENTUCKY | 'I think there's a trend to learn more about the other side'
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- From Abraham Lincoln's boyhood residence to the Mary Todd Lincoln house, visitors this year are flocking to Kentucky sites dedicated to the 16th president.
But Lincoln's Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis, is experiencing a similar resurgence. Kentucky, which claims both men as native sons and has statues of both in its Capitol Rotunda, isn't the only place experiencing a Davis boost.
"It'll be hard for anyone to approach the level of attention that Abraham Lincoln gets because he's always classified as one of our greatest presidents," said Paul Bradshaw, manager of a Davis historic site in Georgia. "But I think there's a trend to learn more about the other side."
Interest in both Civil War presidents seems on the rise amid a two-year blitz surrounding Lincoln's 200th birthday next February. This June marked 200 years since the birth of Davis, who served as president of the Confederacy.
Attendance at Kentucky's Lincoln sites has increased about 18 percent, officials say. Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home in Hodgenville, for example, had more than 105,000 visitors in the first six months this year, compared with about 89,000 during the same period last year.
In addition to the Lincoln museum, birthplace and boyhood home in Hodgenville, Kentucky has eight other museums and historic sites related to Lincoln, his family and associates.
Davis' memorial in Fairview, in southwestern Kentucky, meanwhile, has seen an increase in visitors by about 12 percent overall for the year, and a nearly 30 percent jump in June, the month he was born, said Mark Doss, the Davis memorial park manager.
Increased interest in the Civil War, combined with the bicentennial events, are likely behind the renewed interest, Bradshaw said.
"They know about Lincoln and everything he did," Bradshaw said. "I think there's a trend that there seems to be people who want to learn more about Jefferson Davis and what happened to him."
Rick Forte, acting director of Beauvoir, the home in Biloxi, Miss., where Davis last lived, said about 4,000 people visited the estate on June 3 for Davis' birthday celebration and grand reopening of the home after restoration work following Hurricane Katrina.
"We have seen just an outstanding growth of interest," Forte said. "Phone calls, e-mails, you name it."
In Lexington, Ky., a town that also boasts ties to both men, the Lexington History Museum has an exhibit featuring both Lincoln and Davis. The museum's president said a record number of people -- more than 8,000 -- have viewed the museum's exhibit.
Lisa Cleveland, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Historical Society, said that people drawn to Lincoln also tend to show interest in Davis.
"Clearly, for whatever reason, people are finding a reason to visit those Lincoln sites and looking at the Lincoln legacy in Kentucky," she said. "The interest is there, and I think it's fair to say that there has probably never been as much focus on Lincoln's Kentucky connection as there is now."
AP
CAMP NELSON: 6614 Danville Pike, Nicholasville, Ky., www.campnelson.org or (859) 881-5716. Camp Nelson was a recruitment camp for black soldiers in the Civil War and was later a designated cemetery for Union dead.
FARMINGTON HISTORIC PLANTATION: 3033 Bardstown Road, Louisville; www.historichomes.org/farmington or (502) 452-9920. Home of Lincoln's best friend, Joshua Speed.
HARDIN COUNTY MUSEUM: 201 W. Dixie Ave., Elizabethtown, Ky.; www.hardinkyhistory.org or (270) 763-8339. Exhibit, "Abraham Lincoln, Family and Friends."
LINCOLN HOMESTEAD STATE PARK: 5079 Lincoln Park Road, Springfield, Ky.; http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/recparks/lh or (859) 336-7461. Site include homes where members of Lincoln's family lived and related artifacts and buildings.
KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, Ky., http://history.ky.gov or (502) 564-1792. Lincoln artifacts on display. Major exhibition, "Beyond the Log Cabin: Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln," opens Oct. 20.
MARY TODD LINCOLN HOUSE: 578 W. Main St., Lincoln, Ky.; www.mtlhouse.org or (859) 233-9999. Childhood home of Lincoln's wife.
WHITE HALL STATE HISTORIC SITE: 500 White Hall Shrine Road, Richmond, Ky.; http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/wh or (859) 623-9178. Home of Cassius Marcellus Clay, a prominent abolitionist, and later Lincoln's ambassador to Russia.
ASHLAND: 120 Sycamore Road, Lexington, Ky.; www.henryclay.org or (859) 266-8581. Estate of Henry Clay, influential 19th century Kentucky senator admired by Lincoln, and whose family was close to Mary Todd Lincoln's family.
JEFFERSON DAVIS STATE HISTORIC SITE: Highway 68 East, Fairview, Ky.; http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/jd or (270) 889-6100. Obelisk monument at the site of Davis' birthplace.
BEAUVOIR, THE JEFFERSON DAVIS HOME: 2244 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, Miss.; www.beauvoir.org or (228) 388-4400.
JEFFERSON DAVIS MEMORIAL STATE HISTORIC SITE: 338 Jeff Davis Park Road, Fitzgerald, Ga., near Irwinville; www.gastateparks.org/info/jeffd or (229) 831-2335. Museum and trail mark site where Davis was taken prisoner during Civil War by Union troops.