2012
Railsplitter Festival - Lincoln, Illinois September 14 - 16, 2012 Copyright LDN 2012
6
An old oak makes its
way home to Lincoln
Thanks to Gene Hickey and the
Logan County Mounted Police
Fast-forward to this spring and Hickey
noted the tree had become diseased. It was
dying and needed to come down.
When the tree was cut, Hickey really didn’t
want to see the beautiful old oak destroyed, so
he came up with another idea.
“
We drive by the covered wagon all the
time. We’d see people stopped, looking at
it, and realized there is no place for them to
just sit down and enjoy it,” Hickey said. He
decided that turning the old oak into new
benches for the wagon site would be the
perfect way to preserve the tree.
“
In a way, I guess you could say the tree
has come back home,” Hickey smiled as he
prepared to participate in a dedication service
on Saturday morning.
Hickey said that once the tree was cut
down, he hired it split in half with a large
band saw. He then used a draw saw to plane
the seating area and make it smooth and even.
The two half-logs were then mounted on legs.
Hickey said he used no nails when building
the benches, but rather built them in the same
manner they would have been built in the
1800
s. He pointed out pegs that are inserted
in the lower crossbar that ties all the legs
together.
He had torn down an old barn where the
pegs had been used to secure joists together
and had saved the pegs from the teardown.
He used those in the benches as well.
Once all the work was done, the benches
were given ample coats of weather-resistant
polyurethane to help preserve their life and
color.
The benches were donated in the name
of the Logan County Mounted Police to the
Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan
County to be placed at the covered wagon
site.
The Logan County Mounted Police, of
which Hickey is the captain, was formed
in the 1970s. They currently have a dozen
members who work with and for the Logan
County Sheriff’s Office. Hickey said the
team is called out by Sheriff Steve Nichols as
needed for search and rescue efforts.
They also represent the county in various
S
everal years ago Gene Hickey was hired to do an excavation of the old Sinclair gas
station in Lincoln. During the teardown, the crew noted a small oak tree, about 4 inches
in diameter, growing on the site. At first they thought the best thing to do would be to
destroy it along with everything else, but Hickey had another idea. He dug up the tree, took it to
his home and planted it in his front yard, where it thrived for several years.
