HR0517 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0517 LRB095 12433 KXB 37530 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, For almost a century, beginning in 1673 when Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explored the Mississippi River, France claimed the Illinois Country; and

WHEREAS, In 1718 the French reorganized the administration of their American possessions and removed the Illinois Country from Canadian jurisdiction and made it part of Louisiana; and

WHEREAS, In December of 1718 a contingent of soldiers, officials, and workmen were sent to establish a civil government in the region; a wooden fort was constructed eighteen miles north of the village of Kaskaskia from which the civil authority would operate and whose military presence it was hoped would mollify the Fox Tribe; and

WHEREAS, The stockade, named Fort de Chartres in honor of Louis duc de Chartres, son of the regent of France, quickly deteriorated due to frequent flooding; work on a larger fort, located farther inland, began around 1725; and

WHEREAS, During the 1730s the French leaders began discussing building a stone fort to protect their interests in the region; profitable lead deposits had been found on the west bank of the Mississippi near Ste. Genevieve and the rich bottom lands yielded substantial crops which fed New Orleans, St. Louis, and the rest of the territory; and

WHEREAS, In 1747, with the second fort in considerable disrepair, the garrison relocated to nearby Kaskaskia; and

WHEREAS, Construction of the new fort began in the 1750s; the fort was operational by 1754, and additions and improvements continued until 1760; and

WHEREAS, The continued erosion caused by the Mississippi River eventually caused the fort to be abandoned in 1771; and only a year later the south wall and bastions collapsed into the River; and

WHEREAS, Continued flooding, erosion and decay caused the fort to slowly disappear, and by 1900 the only remnant of the fort that existed above ground was the powder magazine, considered by many historians to be the oldest building in Illinois; and

WHEREAS, The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976; and

WHEREAS, There exists in the area surrounding Fort de Chartres in southern Illinois, the historic resources of three French forts, a French colonial village (St. Anne), two known historic Indian occupational sites (Michigamea), a Jesuit plantation with 2 windmills, a British trading post, the first paved road in the Midwestern United States, the location of the first mining operations (St. Philippe), the 10,000 year old Modoc Rock Shelter, the quarry site for the limestone used to construct the third Fort de Chartres, the first established French Indian reservation (1721), and the colonial village of Prairie du Rocher (1722); therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare our support for the creation of a historical center dedicated to the interpretation and understanding of French colonial life in the United States, to be sited at Fort de Chartres State Park, in Illinois.