SPRINGFIELD - Abraham Lincoln is packing 'em in. Just 21 months after opening, the Springfield museum honoring the life of the 16th president welcomed its millionth visitor on Saturday.

"This accomplishment in such a short time is a testament to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, the city of Springfield and Illinois," Gov. Rod Blagojevich said in a statement.

The record-setting visitor, Craig Schone of Chapin, got a key to the city, two tickets to Blagojevich's inauguration and a gift basket from the museum store.

The museum uses special effects and multimedia productions to illustrate Lincoln's journey from frontier boy to president. High-tech theaters explain his life and the political and moral issues he faced.

President Bush visited the museum on its opening day in April 2005. The adjoining library, which opened in October 2004, houses the world's largest collection of Lincoln documents and artifacts.

More visitors than Clinton

Attendance at the Lincoln museum outpaced that of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, which marked its two-year anniversary in November. In two years, the Little Rock, Ark., complex saw 749,939 visitors, according to the National Archives.

Libraries for George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan both reached 1 million visitors in their sixth years, officials said.

Attendance at the Lincoln museum was "a pretty impressive number," particularly because attendance did not drop dramatically in the second year, said Jason Hall, director of government and media relations for the American Association of Museums.

"For new museums, one of the biggest hurdles is getting past the first year without a major drop-off in attendance," Hall said.

First-year attendance at the Lincoln Museum was nearly 628,000, said museum spokeswoman Jill Burwitz.

The Lincoln museum is more interactive and entertainment-oriented than many history museums, and Hall said that may have helped boost interest.

"The highest attendance tends to be in the most interactive museums - science and technology museums, children's museums and also zoos and aquaria," he said.