On Saturday morning the 2025 National
Railsplitting Festival began with a ribbon cutting ceremony in front
of the Postville Courthouse in Lincoln, Illinois.
Those who were present for the cut included the 2025 Junior Miss
Logan County Fair Courtney Cecil and Little Miss Vayda Farmer, Wanda
Lee Rohlfs of the Logan County Tourism Bureau, Lincoln Alderpersons
Sam Downs and Kevin Bateman, Logan County Board members Kathy
Schmidt, Lance Conahan and Michael Deross, Darlene Begolka, Bob
Rankin and several festival volunteers and exhibitors.
2025 Abraham Lincoln
National Railsplitting Festival Ribbon Cut Ceremony - Video
The ribbon cutting ceremony was led by Nila Smith of Lincoln Daily
News, who asked everyone to observe a moment of silence in memory of
Daris Knauer. Knauer, who was born in 1930 and passed away last year
in November, was an integral part of was one of the founders.
Smith said, “I had the great pleasure and honor of knowing him
personally I admired him and respected him for the man he was, as a
businessman in Lincoln, very involved community member, and
completely dedicated to the Railsplitter.” She noted that Knauer’s
wife Emma would be sponsoring the 1st and 2nd place winners of the
National Rail splitting event Sunday afternoon.
Logan County tourism director Wanda
Lee Rohlfs said the festival has been in many places in Lincoln and
this is one of the perfect sites because we're right on route 66
where people can come by and see what's going on. She thanked the
Railsplitter Association for continuing this activity and wished
them the best success.
Logan County board member Michael
DeRoss thanked all the organizers, the volunteers, and the vendors
for cooperating and coordinating their efforts since the festival
could not go on without them. He told everybody to come out and have
fun.
Lincoln City council representative
and Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Bateman thanked the people for putting this
on. He said Logan County is blessed to have several festivals that
have gone on for several decades and wanted to pay tribute to Mr.
Knauer for getting this started, then Darlene Begolka and Robert
Rankin for picking up the torch and keeping it going. He noted that
many of the people who work with the festival are seasoned and is
hoping younger people will step up and keep it going.
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Smith then acknowledged the young
people there who participate in festival events like the amateur
Railsplitter, corn contest and water boil contest. She said they are
really important aspects of the event and thanked them for their
involvement.
Darlene Begolka thanked the
community for the support that they get from the sponsors, and the
people that were coming out to the festival that weekend, and said
we put our order in for the weather so hopefully it's going to be
wonderful.
Begolka then said “I will say, as Kevin was saying, we do need some
younger people joining us for this festival to be able to continue.
Please come and join us if you are young, even if you're not young
but you're young at heart, we need some more volunteers to help us
continue this festival”
Smith called on the esteemed President Abraham Lincoln to cut the
ribbon and asked if he wanted to say anything.
Lincoln said, “It's always a
dangerous thing to ask a politician to speak up.” He thanked
everyone for keeping his heritage alive and said they all do
excellent at preserving history.
This year, Abraham Lincoln held the
scissors for the cut. Smith had everyone do a countdown from three
and then he snipped the ribbon, making the official start of the
festival that would continue through Sunday evening.
[Angela Reiners w/photos by Nila Smith]
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