Down on the farm, 1800s style

Antique Farm Show Saturday at Lincoln's New Salem

[May 01, 2013]  PETERSBURG -- Horse-drawn plows, historic farming equipment and agricultural techniques from Abraham Lincoln's day will be on display Saturday at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site near Petersburg.

The free Antique Farm Show runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visitors are invited to come and watch plows work the fields in the village of Lincoln's New Salem. Central Illinois farmers who still use horses for farming will be on hand with their horse teams and antique equipment to demonstrate early plowing, planting and other agricultural work. The fieldwork demonstrations will take place weather permitting.

A display of historic farming equipment will be set up in a field by the Blacksmith Shop, near the entrance to the village, allowing Antique Farm Show visitors to learn about agricultural developments from throughout the 19th century. The Vintage Ag Association of Menard County will have an antique tractor display in the parking lot by the Visitor Center.

The event is co-sponsored by the New Salem Lincoln League.

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a reconstruction of the 1830s log village where Abraham Lincoln lived for six years. It is about 20 miles northwest of Springfield and 2 miles south of Petersburg on Route 97.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]