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Illinois Historic Preservation Division facts for kids

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The Illinois Historic Preservation Division is a part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It's like a special team that helps take care of important historical places in Illinois. Their main job is to make sure these places are kept safe and that people can learn from them. They also help decide which places in Illinois should be added to the National Register of Historic Places, which is a list of important historical sites across the United States.

How it All Started

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) was created in July 1985. But the idea of the state taking care of history goes back much further! The oldest part of this agency, the Illinois State Historical Library, started way back in 1889. You could even say the state's history work began in 1865. That's when Illinois first got involved in taking care of the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield.

During the 1900s, Illinois bought and fixed up many historic places. For example, Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site was created in the 1930s. This site in Menard County is a rebuilt village where Abraham Lincoln lived when he was young. The agency also helps manage the Cahokia World Heritage Site. This amazing place has the largest ancient buildings in North America, north of Mexico. The state took over this site early in the 1900s to protect it.

The IHPA kept growing after 1985. This was partly because people were very interested in Abraham Lincoln. His 200th birthday was in 2009. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) opened in Springfield in 2005. Unlike most presidential libraries, this one is owned by the state of Illinois.

In 2016, there was a plan to change the agency. The governor wanted to move its duties to another department. But many people thought that department wouldn't know how to care for historic sites. In 2017, the agency was split up. The job of taking care of historic sites went to a new division. This division is now part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The Lincoln Library (ALPLM) became its own separate agency.

Illinois State Historic Sites

The Illinois Historic Preservation Division takes care of more than 50 historic sites. Here is a list of some of them:

Other historic sites in Illinois are managed by different state agencies, such as:

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