Chicago, Illinois: Towering Tomb of The Little Giant

Known for his short stature in life, Stephen Douglas gets to look down on everyone in death -- or at least his statue does -- from atop a 96-foot-high tombstone. He was tall guy Abe Lincoln's chief rival.

Douglas Tomb State Historic Site

Address:: 713 E. 35th St., Chicago, IL
Directions:: Douglas Tomb State Historic Site. At the far eastern end of E. 35th St., on the north side.
Hours:: Daily 9-5. Gated after hours. Local health policies may affect hours and access.

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Stephen Douglas tomb.

Tomb of Stephen Douglas, Lincoln Rival

Stephen Douglas was Abraham Lincoln's most familiar foe. In the 1840s they were rivals for the affections of Mary Todd. Lincoln won Todd's hand in marriage, but lost to Douglas in Illinois' 1858 U.S. Senate race. They squared off one last time in the 1860 presidential election. Douglas finished second in the popular vote, but a distant fourth behind Lincoln in the Electoral College.

Seven months later, Douglas was dead of typhoid fever. The statesman is interred inside a sarcophagus housed within a tomb that stretches 96 feet in the air. In 2020 state lawmakers, concerned with Douglas's racist ideology, called for the bronze statue of Douglas atop his tomb, which is in a park, to be removed. They proposed that the rest of the tomb, and the body of the Little Giant, could remain.

[Kurt Deion / kurtshistoricsites.com, 03/22/2021]

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