Prairie du Rocher was settled as a French town in 1722. Its farming population was protected by nearby Fort de Chartres. Unlike Kaskaskia, the fur trade was not important here. Half of the population was composed of African or Indian slaves. The explanation given is that farm labor was needed. This contrasts significantly with the far fewer number of slaves in the other French towns.

Prairie de Rocher has remained continuously occupied since its creation, but little of the original French colonial built environment remains. The most notable example is the Creole House (below), which is on the National Register of Historic Places (1973). The house is called “creole” because of its French and American elements. Built ca. 1800 it exhibits both the Medieval (French) style of half-timber as well as the American practice of studs set into the ground (poteaux-sur-sol).

Although there is little to see in Prairie du Rocher (unlike the spectacular Sainte Genevieve across the river in Missouri), the town is historically important. This is attested in the Margaret Kimball Brown’s comprehensive study, History As They Lived It. A Social History of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005). If one visits with Brown’s study as a guidebook, Prairie du Rocher can come alive.

The town also comes alive as intangible cultural heritage through its persistent performance of La Guiannée. Brown argues convincingly that La Guiannée existed in the 18th century and gives evidence of its enactment over the centuries, albeit with changes. La Guiannée was and is associated with New Year’s Eve. Originally, it was “young men [who would] disguise themselves in old cloths, as beggars, and go around the village in the several houses where they knew they would be well received. They enter the house dancing what they call the Gionie, which is a friendly request for them to meet and have a ball to dance away the old year”. Singing was involved as well, until the early morning. Brown includes photos of La Guiannée performers taken in the 1930s and 1950s. The continued performance of La Guiannée animates the town’s identification with its historic French past. Brown writes, “La Guiannée is probably what is visualized most often in the community as the historical identity of the town [Prairie du Rocher].” But, Brown explains, this maintenance of La Guiannée is nostalgic “with little real connection to the past.” Other French traditions have disappeared and, certainly, the built environment of Prairie du Rocher today does not stimulate an identification with the French past, the lone Creole House excepted. And no other originally French town in Illinois has kept continuously performing La Guiannée.

On the other hand, the French origin of Prairie du Rocher is visually manifested  above the town in St Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery. This cemetery is significant for the number of French surnames on its gravestones – and descendants of many of those families still live in Prairie du Rocher. Of particular importance is the memorial tombstone (below) whose inscription explicitly commemorates the Michigamea Indians, early French adventurers, Black slaves, victims of wars and massacres, and others who were buried here.

As the United States was turning 200 years old in 1776, Prairie du Rocher residents took pride in celebrating the 250th anniversary of their town in 1972. It was on this anniversary that the memorial tombstone and cross (illustrated above) were placed in St Joseph’s Cemetery. In 1976 the town raised money to build a new town hall in the French traditional style.

Now in the 2000’s, Prairie du Rocher sees a tourism (i.e., economic development) value in its French past. But it has yet to figure out the implementation.