The Friends of Lincoln State Park will present the second of our three summer family movie nights on Saturday, July 18th. The Friends will present Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D! The movie will begin at dusk (approximately 8:30 PM) and run for 92 minutes. 3-D glasses will be provided and concessions will be available for sale. The movie will be shown at the beach and those attending are encouraged to bring a lawn chair or blanket to sit on.

   The last film in our summer movie series will be on Saturday, August 8th also on the beach at dusk. Due to a delay in release by the studio, we will not be able to present Monsters vs. Aliens as originally scheduled. We will instead present the Tim Burton animated feature, Coraline.

   Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, and Anita Briem and is rated PG. In this New Line Cinema film directed by Eric Brevig, a scientist whose radical theories have completely tarnished his reputation goes backpacking across Iceland and finds a cave that leads him deep down into the bowels of the planet. He follows it trying to find out what has happened to his missing brother. He discovers a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth filled with bizarre landscapes and terrifying creatures.
(Image © New Line Cinema)

  Put on your running shoes and get ready to hit the trails this fall at Lincoln State Park. The Friends of Lincoln State Park will host the Honest Abe Trail Run on Sunday, October 11th. The event will feature both a marathon and a 14K run on the trails of the park.

  Race director Beau Wendholt is a native of Ferdinand and now lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to Wendholt, he has two main objectives in sponsoring the event:   helping out Lincoln State Park by donating any net proceeds to the Friends of Lincoln State Park and also to put on a successful event in an environmentally responsible manner.

   In order to limit the environmental impact of the race, Wendholt plans to take several steps to reduce or eliminate waste and excessive use of resources. Participation in the event will be limited to the first 100 registrants to limit impact on park trails. He also plans to minimize the use of paper by recycling runner numbers from previous races and avoiding the printing of materials that usually get thrown away.

   For more information visit the official race website at www.honestabetrailrun.com or contact race director Beau Wendholt at bwendholt@hotmail.com or (423) 580-7868.

   A large crowd was on hand June 12th at Lincoln State Park for the official dedication ceremony to unveil the new Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Plaza. The ceremony included remarks by former state auditor and Indiana Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial chairwoman Connie Nass, Secretary of State Todd Rokita, and a letter from President Barak Obama read by Adam Dickie from 9th District Congressman Baron Hill's office. The ceremony also included performances by the Evansville Children's Choir, the Evansville Brass Quintet, and LINCOLN cast member, Britt Reagan, as young Abraham Lincoln. Artist Will Clark and Designer George Morrisson were also on hand and offered reflections on their work.

  The theme for the Plaza, "The child is the father of the man," was taken from William Wordsworth and is presented in large letters atop an 8'-6" high limestone cylinder that forms the center of the Plaza. Eight pillars rise in front of the cylinder each 6'-4" in height equal to Lincoln's height when he left Indiana and each describing an important aspect of Lincoln's development between the ages of 7 and 21. On the other side of the Plaza is a large, bronze bust of the President at the end of his life. On each side of the bust are the entire texts of the Gettysburg Address and the closing words of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.

   Indiana limestone was used in the construction of the Plaza, coming from the Empire Quarry in Oolitic, Indiana which also supplied the stone for the Empire State Building. There are 94 pieces of stone in the Plaza, the largest of which weighs 3,400 pounds. Each limestone pillar in the memorial weighs 1,700 pounds. See more photos at www.lspfriends.org/plaza.html.

   Over 600 enthusiastic audience members were on hand on June 12th for the world premiere performance of Ken Jones' LINCOLN presented at the Lincoln Amphitheatre. Directed by Scott Lank, a talented cast of actors featuring television and Broadway actor, Geoffrey Wade, as President Lincoln and Emmy-award winner, Nikkieli DeMone, as Frederick Douglass and a slave named Moses, weave together familiar events from Lincoln's Indiana boyhood with significant events in Lincoln's later life and presidency.

   Scenes unfold seamlessly thanks in part to computerized platforms that bring actors in and out from view. Battle scenes are presented quite effectively using booming sound effects, lighting, music, and choreography. While not a 'musical' in the strict sense of the word, LINCOLN is superbly complemented by simple period hymns sung by a choir of slaves sometime supported by additional supporting cast members including a pair of actors who often appear in the background playing (for real) a guitar and violin.

   Lincoln Amphitheatre received a bit of good news recently when the Indiana General Assembly, with the support of Rep. Russ Stilwell, approved a two-year state budget signed by Governor Mitch Daniels which included $880,000 for the LINCOLN production over the next two years. If you haven't yet attended a performance of LINCOLN, be sure to call and reserve your tickets soon. LINCOLN runs nightly except Mondays through August 15th. Call (800) 264-4223 or visit www.lincolnamphitheatre.com for more information.