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Mrs. Butterworth Fights For Lincoln Log Cabin

October 10, 2008

It comforts the gut like a hearty stack of hotcakes — and knocks askew traditional concepts of competition — to learn that a roadside attraction is fighting for the existence of another roadside attraction.

So it is in Illinois, where the statue of Julia Dent Grant — known to locals as “Mrs. Butterworth” — has been sporting protest signs against the threatened budget cuts of governor Rod Blagojevich. These cuts would not threaten Mrs. Butterworth, but they would close a fellow Illinois attraction, the (non-Abraham) Lincoln Log Cabin.

A bill to reinstate the Cabin’s funding is on the governor’s desk. Although the Cabin’s closing date has been pushed back a month to November 1, it (and other less entertaining places) are still in peril. A story in the Ogle County News notes that “There are still several opportunities for mischief by the governor,” and encourages its readers to “keep the pressure on.”

Julia Grant’s protest may not be entirely selfless. There is news that another Illinois roadside attraction, the giant statue of Black Hawk, is caught in the governor’s crosshairs as well. Its closing is slated for November 30. Perhaps it was this additional assault on a fellow statue that made the governor’s plan too much for Mrs. Butterworth to stomach.

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