welcome to gma and gpa adventures in springfield illinois as we see the lincoln memorial garden
today. says the garden is open from sunrise to sunset. says the lincoln memorial garden
was envisioned by mrs harriet knudsen during construction of lake springfield in 1930's.
she commissioned the garden in 1934 and the garden's been growing according to this path
for more than 75 years. wow. it says walking of dogs is prohibited so don't bring your dog.
abraham lincoln spent the first 20 years of his life in the forest of kentucky and indiana
and then migrated to illinois. i think we're going to go into the nature center first, but
maybe this map shows you the different trails. like i said there's five miles of walking trails.
five miles. nice because some of it's right along the water.
let's go into the nature center and we'll see if there's a gift shop and if there's any kind
of maps or if you need to like maybe download an app on your phone or something. the illinois
garden club made this bench and it has one of abraham lincoln's quotes that says, the better
part of one's life consists of his friendships. a. lincoln. it says it's a 100 acre site here.
wow 100 acres. wow this is big. this is cool. this big giant gray and pink rock. abraham
lincoln memorial garden club of 1937. here's the nature center. it's open until 4 p.m today.
and then you'll just be go off to your left there and there'll be a path down towards the lake.
okay thank you. a lot of cool stuff in this nature center. lots of books about the outdoors
and animal life. field guides and nature books. abe lincoln says whatever you are be a good one.
and in this room it tells about animals and insects, plants, trees,
the wetlands, and the food chain. and coming out of the nature center we're going to turn left
and follow this trail out to another part of the trail that's alongside of the lake.
so that should be pretty. some of the trails are sidewalks and some are wood chips. oh she
told us not to miss this guy. oh my goodness he's about nine feet tall. who made that.
this will give you an idea of how big he really is. there's donna standing in front of him. he is
really cool. that's some great work there. this tells about some of the stages of a butterfly.
and he's growing. trying to metamorphosize. i did it i'm a butterfly. she said some of the
child artists made these pictures. every blade of grass is a study on this trail.
it's wood chips and then it turns into a grass trail up ahead. and we think we're going
to the lake. i think it's taking us closer to a trail by the lake. so we're just kind
of exploring. it's very pretty along here. a lot of trees flowers. and an open meadow over there.
and we're gonna keep heading this way. and i think i see the lake. yeah there's a trail marker
here. redbud lane. and right now we're on the lake trail. this is really cool. you can hear the waves
along the side of the lake. there's an open spot where you can get a really good view of the lake.
some birds flying along there.
really pretty.
and over there across the lake is springfield. we're more in the
southeast corner of springfield. the better part of one's life consists of his friendships.
couldn't ask for a prettier walk right here along the lake.
there's a big variety of trees along the trail. the noblest work of god - an honest man.
you can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry. be of good cheer - all is
well. we walked north along the lake trail and we're coming to the end of it. i think
it's going to curve to the right. and there's an open area here that shows a lot of the lake.
a little area here kind of like a beach or you can go down to the water. that's cool.
laughter - the joyous beautiful universal evergreen of life. that's a fork here.
there's a little bridge. the jesse knott's bridge it says.
and a little stream that goes down to the lake. we're on the bird cherry trail right now. the
garden is a living memorial to abraham lincoln. and it contains plants native to the three states
that he lived in. indiana kentucky and illinois. the trail branches off here. the walnut trail to
the left and the bird cherry trail to the right. we're gonna go to the left because that'll take us
to the farthest point of the garden. and in the end it is not the years in your life that count
it's the life in your years. are you impressed with this tree. i'm impressed. huge. me too
very impressive. there are a lot of big ones around here.
there's all kinds of different plants and flowers in here. so far we've just seen squirrels and
birds but no other animals. all american citizens are brothers of a common country.
there's an opening in the trail that goes along the side of the road. a couple of rocks here.
looks like the rock that's at the entrance where we came in. can go in here and go right
onto the trail. we just came up on this trail to this little bridge. that looks kind of cool.
we're gonna see if there's any water underneath it. oh yeah there's a tiny bit of water
not a lot. i see some right there. okay this looks like it goes straight up.
it says determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find the way. a lincoln.
and this is where the trail came out at. right where we started. we're getting ready to install a
wood, children's woodland garden oh in this area. all the way around here up to the
like where the troll is. oh yeah. so we're just starting fundraising on that
and doing um the drawings. we have a landscape architect working on the drawings with us so
we're going to incorporate all this. that's going to be neat. we're very excited. yeah the garden
clubs of illinois which are based up in chicago um gave us some starting funds so we're very excited
to get going on it. so this will eventually be a children's garden area in here. so that'll be
cool. we'll have to come back and see that. we walked to the top of the gardens the far north.
and now we're walking down to the south. and you see different things on different trails.
there's a variety of different trees and flowers and plants. it looks like another bridge up ahead.
i think we're getting near the end of the southern part of this property. and we're going uphill. not
sure what that is. there's a little circle there you can sit in. the boy scouts and girl scouts
come out here a lot. just that they come out here with their leaders a lot. walk the trails figure
out what trees they are. like name the trees. this is a great place for a nature walk. and
like i say lots of different plants and trees to identify. and i'm not too good at identifying them
i just enjoy looking at them. love these bridges. there's quite a bit of water under this one.
oh yeah we're right here about number 11 by the lake shore. and we're gonna go around here and
look at the ostermeier prairie center. there's a squirrel. there's a bigger bridge coming up.
the biggest one we've seen so far. looks like a more traditional bridge not made out of the
logs like the others. we're a little higher up here. and we're over more water. donna
noticed there's a little dam right there. looks man-made. and that's going right out to the lake.
oh this is really pretty here too. looks like some trees have fallen. government of the people by the
people for the people shall not perish from the earth. we found a spot going down by the lake that
has some actual steps. and a sign up here a little placard. and that's a really cool tree there.
this tree has been here since 1787. the national arborist association and
the international society of agriculture jointly recognized this significant tree
in this bicentennial year as having lived here at the time of the signing of our constitution.
up there's a furthest north point. and we're all the way down here now. there's that really cool
tree. it's amazing that was here at the time of the signing of the constitution.
and this is called the historic cinquapin oh or maybe it's historic cinquapin oak.
not sure if i'm saying that right. but it is definitely historic. and this says the prairie
center is to the right. people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
some different plants down here too. and we came out of the tree line and here's the prairie area.
and we're gonna go off to the left to see if we can get to the pond.
but there is a trail that goes that way into the prairie. there's a picnic area. and there's the
pond over there. you could drive down this way and park and come up here and have a picnic.
i remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. there's an old bridge
over there. we're going to walk across that. this bridge is kind of cool. it curves around
it's not just a straight bridge. i just walked into a spider web. oh well thanks for going first.
and there's two turtles on the end of that branch there. there's a little turtle all covered up in
the water too. they teach hope to all - despair to none. this is another bridge that goes over
the pond. they call this the wildlife viewing area at the ostermeier pond. as we walk over
the bridge there's this curved area with bench seats all along it. it's kind of interesting.
this is really pretty right here. curves all the way around kind of in a half circle on the edge
of the pond. and that's going to take us up to the parking lot over here. we're headed down to
shady lane we're going to take a left and then go back to the parking lot. landscape architect jen
jensen's plan for the garden included large granite boulders at each of the three entrances.
it took three trips to bring them all to the garden. there's a lady standing on them
1937. and here are the boulders at the third entrance that we've seen. this is what i'd
call the south entrance. we parked at the middle and there were boulders at
the north. disappointed we haven't seen a snake today. donna's not disappointed.
we can't both have our way. and across the road from the entrance is a big open field.
they have a stage over there. they do have a fall festival. and other events. and there's
parking over there. there's plenty of room to host whatever events they want to have. thanks
for watching. make sure you comment like and subscribe. and what did you think about today. i
really liked it here. the lincoln memorial garden is really pretty. lots of trails. uh that's nice
that it's by the lake. this was a lot of fun. yeah. and if you think you won't get a workout,
you get a workout. you get a workout. yeah we got lots of steps in today. make sure you bring your
bug spray though. so thanks for watching stay tuned we'll have more adventures on the way.