During the Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Contest and Crafts Festival

Bob Church, surveyor, returns         

[SEPT. 16, 2006]  Bob Church, executive director of the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors Association, will be at the 36th annual Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Contest and Crafts Festival. Back by popular demand, he will present a PowerPoint presentation on a little-known aspect of Abraham Lincoln's life: his time as a deputy Sangamon County surveyor.

Lincoln performed surveys of lots and roads, and he laid out five towns between 1833 and 1837, while living in New Salem.

The 129-slide presentation will explain how Lincoln became a surveyor, where he surveyed and how surveying helped his political career.

Presentations are scheduled for 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Exhibition Building at the Logan County Fairgrounds.

For more information on events at the Railsplitting Festival, visit www.railsplitting.com.

[Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County news release]

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