Yes Gloria it is everything you say it is and more. I have been there twice and plan to go back. As I walked up those many steps to enter the Courthouse I tried to feel the emotions my great grandfather felt as a small boy who was entering the courthouse with his many older siblings to face the judge to receive his inheritance that his much beloved grandfather had left them. The grandfather had remembered his grandchildren and granted to them the share that his much loved first child would of received if she had not died when my grandfather was 5 years old. I visited the cemeteries and could feel the sorrow the family members felt as they layed my grandparents to rest. Everywhere I went I felt the presence of their struggles, love and sorrow and knew for sure these people had really lived and were not just names on a census or cemetery reading. Yes we need to revisit sites that instill in us the realism that these people were once just like us and like them we will be someday. I would encourage anyone to go visit Carlinville and live the experience for yourself. Love you Macoupin people. Jo Ann