Before there was a State of Illinois there was a “Pays des Illinois” — the Indian lands explored and then colonized by France through its New France (French Canadian) venture of trade and missionization. These are the key historic sites pertaining to French Illinois in the southwest of the territory:

French Cahokia (not the ancient mounds site): CLICK HERE

Fort de Chartres: CLICK HERE

Kaskaskia: CLICK HERE

Fort Kaskaskia:CLICK HERE

Garrison Hill Cemetery: CLICK HERE

Pierre Menard Home:CLICK HERE

Prairie de Rocher: CLICK HERE

The French occupation of southern Illinois is historically fascinating and has left a significant footprint on the ground. Look at the story map made by Emma Verstraete as an introduction to the history and geography of this period. CLICK HERE.   

The French presence in southern Illinois had its epicenter in the long-disappeared town of Kaskaskia, artifacts from which are visible and visitable in the “new” Kaskaskia. Importantly, although a massive flood of the Mississippi River wiped out Old Kaskaskia in 1881 (by which time it was an American town whose fortunes had declined), that Old Kaskaskia was the southern point of a remarkable series of originally French sites that ran north to Cahokia and that once were connected by the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail. Use of that trail continued into the American period. Today’s vehicular Route 3 parallels it to the east.

    

The two logos for the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail are quite interesting. The one on the left refers to the trail’s creation by the Native American Kaskaskia and Cahokia tribes. The logo on the right adds the fleur-de-lis, speaking to the French missionaries who created the two French towns, each of which had Native Americans in their missions.

In various of the towns on this map, one can find signposts with the KCT logo. The first of these signs is in the new Kaskaskia commemorating its origin in the old Kaskaskia.

Indeed, ultimately we can extend the French occupation in southern Illinois nine miles north beyond the town of French Cahokia to the mission established by Cahokia’s Seminarians atop the humongous ancient earthen platform mound that Native American people built more than six hundred years earlier – that archaeological  structure is known in the literature, quite appropriately, as Monks Mound.

The still occupied or still visible/visitable places of southern French Illinois are shown on this map:
In 1975 the National Register of Historic Places recognized the entire French Colonial District from Kaskaskia to Prairie du Rocher. We would like to see Chester as the gateway to this French Colonial District, meaning that tourists go south along Route 3 and then head west over to Chester and then proceed north to visit the string of interesting attractions.

An outstanding civic group called Les Amis, based in St. Louis, has developed an excellent “French Creole Corridor” through the Mid-Mississippi River Valley. That corridor is bi-state and includes the beautiful and architecturally rich Ste Genevieve in Missouri, but almost all of the attractions are in Illinois. One can drop down from St. Louis, visit Ste Genevieve and cross by ferry at Modoc to the Illinois side. The “French Creole Corridor” was developed in conjunction with Illinois South Tourism Bureau, which then became Discover Downstate Illinois. The French counties are St. Clair, Monroe and Randolph. As explained on our project’s home page, our goal is to promote tourism on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River through exploitation of Illinois’ cultural resources.

A more comprehensive version of the “French Creole Corridor/French Historic District” is under development by a dedicated citizen, community and multi-institutional, multi-governmental-level organization based in Prairie du Rocher. Their first concern is the levees, given the disaster of the 2019 floods. But consideration of the levees and the natural/man-made environment has led to the addition of cultural resource management. We endorse the vision of their strategic plan for developing the French sites discussed in our website.
Sept-Oct 2022

In 2019 the Foundation for Illinois Colonial and American Studies (FICAS) was established “to preserve, record, and promote the French and early American legacy of Illinois … (circa 1670 -1849)” They can be followed on facebook.

For more information about Kaskaskia watch these two programs produced by Illinois Humanities: Kaskaskia and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union Part 1: CLICK
Kaskaskia and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union Part 2: CLICK