A Town Divided on Plan for Lincoln Theme Park | LA Times

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A Town Divided on Plan for Lincoln Theme Park
For 'edu-tainment' and tourism, boosters in Illinois want rides and a 30-story statue.



By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer

LINCOLN, Ill. — This friendly outpost in the cornfields has just one claim to fame. And lately, some folks have been thinking they're not making all they could of it.

Looking to honor the gangly president who gave Lincoln its good name — and, not incidentally, to draw tourists by the tens of thousands — civic boosters have proposed building an Honest Abe theme park, capped off with a towering 30-story statue of the man himself.

They envision animatronic displays of Civil War history; a working model of a 19th century frontier farm; a water park; a toboggan run; miniature golf; bumper cars; and stovepipe hats aplenty.

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