Why does Abe Lincoln Look So Grim?

This is a rest stop along I-80 near Laramie, Wyoming which serves to commemorate the Lincoln Highway, which, the displays say, crossed the US from Times Square to San Francisco. There is a huge sculpture of Abraham Lincoln’s head on the site as well. Displays tell how the sculpture was made, how many tons of clay for the mold, how long it took, and so on. In fact, the displays have some pretty cool history of the building of the highway, pictures from early days, a memorial to the fellow who’s called “the father of the highway.”

Interesting how many observable, verifiable facts there are at this commemorative center. People were present to observe when this work was done. Statements can be verified, pictorial evidence confirms stages of the work, and so on. We can pretty much accept these statements as truth just because of the pile of evidence included in these displays.

Then there’s the stuff in the other pictures. Vedauwoo is a collection of rock formations in nearby Medicine Bow National Forest. The displays say they’re not sure where the name came from but they believe it’s a corruption of an Indian name. So they’re not sure about that, but they gave some evidence, and they’re probably right about where the name came from. But they’re not sure, and they admit it.

Now here’s the kicker: Amid all these verifiable facts and one maybe, there’s that line that says the rock formations are “1.4 billion-year-old Sherman granite.” It doesn’t say they might be. Doesn’t even give any evidence for why they are. Just like the Inland Ocean fossils we took pictures of in Montana, this presupposition, assumption, and religious dogma is stated as a fact. That’s why Abe looks so grim, I think.

This article originally appeared on our website, http://findleyfamilyvideopublications.com, at this url:

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