Bill Text: IL SR0068 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Supports the creation of a New Salem Preservation Commission to monitor and recommend repairs and maintenance for Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, including structures, signage, statues, overall condition of the grounds, and accessibility, and to make recommendations for the volunteer coordination efforts, including interactions and communications with current and potential volunteers, as well as guidelines for volunteer eligibility and retention.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-31 - Referred to Assignments [SR0068 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-SR0068-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site provides
a historic, interactive interpretation of the reconstructed
1830s village where Abraham Lincoln once lived, which at one
time, when it was a premier site, hosted more than 400,000
visitors from around the world per year; and
WHEREAS, Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site has
experienced extensive deterioration of the reconstructed log
homes, roofs, buildings, foundations, chimneys, fences, steps,
footbridge, flatboat, cemetery, and iconic Grist Mill; and
WHEREAS, Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site attracts
students on field trips, volunteers, campers, hikers, canoeing
and kayaking enthusiasts, college interns, cyclists, children
partaking in Pioneer Life Summer Day Camps, historians,
visitors from around the world, and descendants of those who
lived, worked, and are buried there; and
WHEREAS, Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site serves as
a living history museum, with volunteer interpreters in the
homes, and features concessions, a gift shop, campgrounds,
exercise areas, and trails; the site also hosts a number of
events, including the Traditional Music Festival, Theatre in
the Park, Summer Frolic, the Independence Day Celebration,

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which features a reading of the Declaration of Independence,
the Fall Festival, the popular annual Fall Candlelight Walk,
Boy Scouts of America (BSA) jamborees, and the BSA Abraham
Lincoln Pilgrimage, where scouts hike while retracing
Lincoln's footsteps to Springfield; and
WHEREAS, Over the past 40 years, the New Salem Lincoln
League has invested more than a million dollars in programs
and improvements to Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site,
including introducing new cultural and educational programs in
the village and outdoor theater, purchasing traditional wood
shingles to replace the village structures' roofs and treated
wood to replace cabin porches and steps, paying for the site's
iconic statues to be professionally cleaned, treated, and
restored, financing new LED lighting to save the site
thousands of dollars, funding the veterinary care and
transportation for medical care of the site's animals, and
acquiring a horse, a horse trailer, feed, and hay; the league
has also made a number of enhancements to the Visitor Center
and its parking lot, including the production of an
orientation video and the addition of a new state-of-the art
system to replace the center's aging audiovisual equipment;
and
WHEREAS, The New Salem Lincoln League relies on the work
and dedication of volunteers to make Lincoln's New Salem State

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Historic Site a memorable experience for visitors, and in
turn, provides supplies and materials for volunteer efforts,
such as clothing, materials for demonstrations, candles for
the annual candlelight tour, and meals for all volunteers and
staff during those tours; the league has also worked with
Theatre In the Park, which attracts over 10,000 visitors a
year, funding new seating and a new sound board, and it
partners with the Illinois College Explorer program to fund up
to six college interns each summer; and
WHEREAS, For Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site to
continue, it is essential that the State of Illinois honors
its commitment to preserve and maintain the site, ensuring its
existence for future generations as a living history museum
and as an opportunity to learn about Abraham Lincoln's
transformative early years; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support the
creation of a New Salem Preservation Commission to monitor and
recommend repairs and maintenance for Lincoln's New Salem
State Historic Site, including structures, signage, statues,
overall condition of the grounds, and accessibility, and to
make recommendations for the volunteer coordination efforts,
including interactions and communications with current and
potential volunteers, as well as guidelines for volunteer

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eligibility and retention; and be it further