Springfield's Old State Capitol: Donner Party launching point

The Abraham Lincoln heritage of Springfield's Old State Capitol is well-known.

The Chicago Tribune this evening is reporting on some unpleasantries associated with the immediate neighborhood of the building where Saturday Sen. Barack Obama will make his presidential announcement.

Somehow I missed this when I visited Springfield last month, but there is a small plaque adjacent to the Old State Capitol marking the departure point of the Donner Party.

From the Tribune, free registration may be required:

A plaque, on a kiosk in the plaza just south of the building, commemorates the spot as "the departure point of the Donner Party on April 15, 1846, for their ill-fated trip to California."

Ill-fated is right. The group, which eventually numbered more than 80 men, women and children, left Springfield with high hopes, only to get stranded in the California mountains under ever-deepening snow. Some died of starvation and exposure. Nearly all of the rest survived only by resorting to cannibalism.

Recent speculation however indicates the Donner Party may not have been cannibals.

Just a block north of the Old State Capitol, serial killer John Wayne Gacy was a manager for the Nunn-Bush shoe store in the mid-1960s. The Chicago native was named the Springfield Jaycees' "Man of the Year" in 1965. About ten years later, after moving back to the Chicago area, Gacy killed his first victim.

Expect a lot of Lincoln in Obama's speech on Saturday, but no mentions of the Donner Party or John Wayne Gacy.

Related posts: Thirty hours in Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois

Donner Party weren't cannibals? Swallow this new interpretation

Technorati tags: Illinois Lincoln Springfield Abraham Lincoln history Donner Party New Gacy Obama Barack Obama politics 2008 elections Democrats California