This photo of Idaho's historic statue of Abraham Lincoln, which dates back to 1915, is shown last June before it was restored and moved to a higher-profile location just south of the state Capitol. The newly refurbished statue is scheduled to be unveiled in a grand ceremony at noon on Feb. 12, Lincoln's 200th birthday. Idaho schoolchildren raised $3,000 in a "Pennies for Lincoln" campaign to help fund the project. (Betsy Russell / The Spokesman-Review)
It's Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, and Idaho
has a celebration planned featuring the unveiling of its newly restored and
relocated statue of the 16th president, “The Emancipator,” which
shows Lincoln
holding the Emancipation Proclamation. Idaho’s
statue, first placed in 1915, six years after the introduction of the Lincoln penny, is thought to be the oldest surviving Lincoln monument in the western United States; this photo shows it
when it still stood tucked away in a little-known spot on the grounds of the
Idaho State Veterans Home last June.
The
statue has since been lovingly restored to its former grandeur and moved to a
high-profile location just south of Idaho’s
state Capitol. It’ll be unveiled on Thursday in an hour-long noon ceremony featuring
music, speeches, schoolchildren, the Army Tuba Corps, a costumed Lincoln portrayer reciting
the Gettysburg Address and more. Elementary school students across the state
raised $3,000 in pennies to help fund the refurbishing and relocation of the
statue in a “Pennies for Lincoln”
campaign; school kids will be among those pulling off a drape to unveil the
statue in the noon ceremony.
The
6-foot, 4-inch bronze sculpture is life-size, and stands atop a nearly
10-foot-high sandstone pedestal bearing the date Feb. 12, 1915. Former Idaho
Lt. Gov. David Leroy, a Lincoln buff and chairman of the Idaho Abraham Lincoln
Bicentennial Commission, is inviting the public not only to the hour-long noon
ceremony, but also to a “Birthday Party” for Lincoln to be held from 5-8 p.m. in a heated
tent near the statue, featuring food, music and a 200-candle birthday
cake.
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