Fort de Chartres
Encyclopedia
Fort de Chartres was a French
fortification
first built in 1720 on the east bank of the Mississippi River
in present-day Illinois
. The Fort de Chartres name was also applied to the two successive fortifications built nearby during the 18th century in the era of French colonial control over Louisiana
and the Illinois Country
.
A partial reconstruction of the third and last fort, which was built of local limestone
shortly before the end of French rule in the Midwest, is preserved in an Illinois
state park four miles (6 km) west of Prairie du Rocher
in extreme northwest Randolph County, Illinois
. It is south of St. Louis, Missouri
. The site and its associated buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places
and recognized as a National Historic Landmark
on October 15, 1966. It is in the floodplain area that became known as the American Bottom
.
The name of the original fort honored Louis, duc de Chartres
, son of the Regent
of France. The fort's stone magazine, which survived the gradual ruin that overtook the rest of the site, is considered the oldest building in the state of Illinois
. The state park today hosts several large re-enactments at the fort of colonial-era civil and military life each summer.
and his Company of the West
. Hoping to make a fortune mining precious metals, the company built a fort to protect its interests. The original wooden fort was built in 1718-1720 by a French contingent from New Orleans, led by Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand
. When administration of the Illinois Country was moved from Canada
to New Orleans, governance was transferred to the Company of the Indies. The fort was built to be the seat of government and to control the Indians
of the region, particularly the Fox. The original fort was a palisade of logs with two bastion
s at opposite corners.
Within five years, flooding from the Mississippi had left the original fort in bad condition. Construction of a second fort further from the river, but still on the flood plain, began in 1725. This fort was also made of logs and had a bastion at each of the four corners. By 1731 the Company of the Indies had gone defunct and returned Louisiana and its government back to the king.
The second wooden fort deteriorated somewhat less rapidly but by 1742 was in bad repair. In 1747 the French garrison moved to the region's primary settlement 18 miles (29 km) to the south at Kaskaskia
. The French debated where to rebuild the fort. When rule of the area reverted to the French crown in the 1730s, officials began to discuss construction of a stone fortress. The government in New Orleans wanted to move the garrison permanently to Kaskaskia, but the local commandant argued for a location near the original site.
The government decided to rebuild a fort in stone near the first forts rather than at Kaskakia. Construction began in 1753 and was mostly completed in 1756; however, construction continued at the site for another four years. The limestone fort had walls 15-ft (3 m)-high and 3-ft (1m)-thick, enclosing an area of 4 acres (16,000 m²). The stone for construction was quarried in bluffs about two or three miles (4 km) distant and had to be ferried across a small lake.
was signed following the Seven Years War (French and Indian War
) and the French transferred control of the Illinois Country to Great Britain
. The stone fort had served as center of French administration of the region for only ten years. With the Royal Proclamation of 1763
, the British Crown declared almost all of the land between the Appalachian Mountains
and the Mississippi River from Florida to Newfoundland an Indian Reserve
.
The British had difficulty getting a regiment to their newly acquired fort, but on October 10, 1765, a small detachment of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment took control of the fort and surrounding area. The 42nd was shortly replaced by the 34th Regiment. French settlers were ordered to leave or get a special license to remain. Many French settlers moved to the more congenial culture of St. Louis. The 34th Regiment of Foot renamed the installation Fort Cavendish, after its colonel. However, the post was known as Ft. Chartres from 1768 on, after the 34th were replaced by the
18th (Royal Irish) Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. Wilkins. The British, abandoned the post in May 1772 when the majority of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment was ordered back to Philadelphia. A small party under Capt Hugh Lord remained at Kaskaskia until May 1776.
The State of Illinois acquired the ruins in 1913 as a historic site and restored the powder magazine in 1917. The powder magazine is thought to be the oldest existing building in the state of Illinois
. In the 1920s foundations of the fort's buildings and walls were exposed. In the late 1920s and through the 1930s, the US WPA
rebuilt the gateway and two stone buildings.
A combination museum and office building, constructed in 1928 on the foundation of an original fort building, houses exhibits depicting French life at Fort de Chartres. The large stone “Guards House,” reconstructed in 1936, contains a Catholic chapel furnished in the style of the 1750s, along with a priest’s room, a gunner’s room, an officer-of-the-day room, and a guard’s room. Also on the grounds are an operating bake oven, a garden shed built of upright logs in French Colonial poteaux-sur-solle (French:post on sill) construction, and a kitchen garden with raised beds of produce typical of French 18th-century Illinois.
Partial reconstruction of the fort's walls on the original foundations followed in 1989. The frames of some additional buildings were erected as a display of the post-and-beam construction techniques used for the originals. Other buildings' foundations and cellars were exposed for educational display as well.
Today the site has a museum and small gift shop. It plays host each June to a Rendezvous
that is said to be one of the largest and oldest in the country celebrating frontier
French and Indian culture.
The site is protected by modern levee
s, but the Mississippi River is still an occasional menace. The flood of 1993
breached the levee and sent waters fifteen feet deep to lap at the top of the walls.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
first built in 1720 on the east bank of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
in present-day Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The Fort de Chartres name was also applied to the two successive fortifications built nearby during the 18th century in the era of French colonial control over Louisiana
Louisiana (New France)
Louisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682–1763 and 1800–03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
and the Illinois Country
Illinois Country
The Illinois Country , also known as Upper Louisiana, was a region in what is now the Midwestern United States that was explored and settled by the French during the 17th and 18th centuries. The terms referred to the entire Upper Mississippi River watershed, though settlement was concentrated in...
.
A partial reconstruction of the third and last fort, which was built of local limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
shortly before the end of French rule in the Midwest, is preserved in an Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
state park four miles (6 km) west of Prairie du Rocher
Prairie du Rocher, Illinois
Prairie du Rocher is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Founded in the French colonial period in the American Midwest, the community is located near bluffs that flank the east side of the Mississippi River along the floodplain often called the "American Bottom".Prairie du...
in extreme northwest Randolph County, Illinois
Randolph County, Illinois
Randolph County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 33,476, which is a decrease of 1.2% from 33,893 in 2000. Its county seat is Chester....
. It is south of St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. The site and its associated buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
and recognized as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
on October 15, 1966. It is in the floodplain area that became known as the American Bottom
American Bottom
The American Bottom is the flood plain of the Mississippi River in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois, extending from Alton, Illinois, to the Kaskaskia River. It is also sometimes called "American Bottoms". The area is about , mostly protected from flooding by a levee and drainage canal...
.
The name of the original fort honored Louis, duc de Chartres
Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Orléans
Louis d'Orléans was the Duke of Orléans and a member of the royal family of France, the House of Bourbon, and as such was a prince du sang. At his father's death, he became the First Prince of the Blood...
, son of the Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
of France. The fort's stone magazine, which survived the gradual ruin that overtook the rest of the site, is considered the oldest building in the state of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The state park today hosts several large re-enactments at the fort of colonial-era civil and military life each summer.
History
The French
On January 1, 1718, the French government granted a trade monopoly to John LawJohn Law (economist)
John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade...
and his Company of the West
Mississippi Company
The "Mississippi Company" became the "Company of the West" and expanded as the "Company of the Indies" .-The Banque Royale:...
. Hoping to make a fortune mining precious metals, the company built a fort to protect its interests. The original wooden fort was built in 1718-1720 by a French contingent from New Orleans, led by Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand
Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand
Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand was a Canadien who commanded several areas in North America colonized by France in the early 18th Century, rising to become the fourth governor of the French colony of Louisiana....
. When administration of the Illinois Country was moved from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to New Orleans, governance was transferred to the Company of the Indies. The fort was built to be the seat of government and to control the Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
of the region, particularly the Fox. The original fort was a palisade of logs with two bastion
Bastion
A bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
s at opposite corners.
Within five years, flooding from the Mississippi had left the original fort in bad condition. Construction of a second fort further from the river, but still on the flood plain, began in 1725. This fort was also made of logs and had a bastion at each of the four corners. By 1731 the Company of the Indies had gone defunct and returned Louisiana and its government back to the king.
The second wooden fort deteriorated somewhat less rapidly but by 1742 was in bad repair. In 1747 the French garrison moved to the region's primary settlement 18 miles (29 km) to the south at Kaskaskia
Kaskaskia, Illinois
Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. In the 2010 census the population was 14, making it the second-smallest incorporated community in the State of Illinois in terms of population. A major French colonial town of the Illinois Country, its peak population was about...
. The French debated where to rebuild the fort. When rule of the area reverted to the French crown in the 1730s, officials began to discuss construction of a stone fortress. The government in New Orleans wanted to move the garrison permanently to Kaskaskia, but the local commandant argued for a location near the original site.
The government decided to rebuild a fort in stone near the first forts rather than at Kaskakia. Construction began in 1753 and was mostly completed in 1756; however, construction continued at the site for another four years. The limestone fort had walls 15-ft (3 m)-high and 3-ft (1m)-thick, enclosing an area of 4 acres (16,000 m²). The stone for construction was quarried in bluffs about two or three miles (4 km) distant and had to be ferried across a small lake.
The British
In 1763 the Treaty of ParisTreaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
was signed following the Seven Years War (French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
) and the French transferred control of the Illinois Country to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. The stone fort had served as center of French administration of the region for only ten years. With the Royal Proclamation of 1763
Royal Proclamation of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
, the British Crown declared almost all of the land between the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
and the Mississippi River from Florida to Newfoundland an Indian Reserve
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve is specified by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." The Act also specifies that land reserved for the use and benefit of a band which is not...
.
The British had difficulty getting a regiment to their newly acquired fort, but on October 10, 1765, a small detachment of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment took control of the fort and surrounding area. The 42nd was shortly replaced by the 34th Regiment. French settlers were ordered to leave or get a special license to remain. Many French settlers moved to the more congenial culture of St. Louis. The 34th Regiment of Foot renamed the installation Fort Cavendish, after its colonel. However, the post was known as Ft. Chartres from 1768 on, after the 34th were replaced by the
18th (Royal Irish) Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. Wilkins. The British, abandoned the post in May 1772 when the majority of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment was ordered back to Philadelphia. A small party under Capt Hugh Lord remained at Kaskaskia until May 1776.
Ruin
The Mississippi continued to take its toll after the fort was abandoned. In 1772 the south wall and bastion fell into the river. The remaining walls deteriorated, and visitors noted trees growing in them by the 1820s. Locals carted away stones for construction over the years. By 1900 the walls were gone. The only part of the original fort that remained was the stone building that had served as the powder magazine.Reconstruction
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. In the 1920s foundations of the fort's buildings and walls were exposed. In the late 1920s and through the 1930s, the US WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
rebuilt the gateway and two stone buildings.
A combination museum and office building, constructed in 1928 on the foundation of an original fort building, houses exhibits depicting French life at Fort de Chartres. The large stone “Guards House,” reconstructed in 1936, contains a Catholic chapel furnished in the style of the 1750s, along with a priest’s room, a gunner’s room, an officer-of-the-day room, and a guard’s room. Also on the grounds are an operating bake oven, a garden shed built of upright logs in French Colonial poteaux-sur-solle (French:post on sill) construction, and a kitchen garden with raised beds of produce typical of French 18th-century Illinois.
Partial reconstruction of the fort's walls on the original foundations followed in 1989. The frames of some additional buildings were erected as a display of the post-and-beam construction techniques used for the originals. Other buildings' foundations and cellars were exposed for educational display as well.
Today the site has a museum and small gift shop. It plays host each June to a Rendezvous
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
that is said to be one of the largest and oldest in the country celebrating frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
French and Indian culture.
The site is protected by modern levee
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
s, but the Mississippi River is still an occasional menace. The flood of 1993
Great Flood of 1993
The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 occurred in the American Midwest, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages...
breached the levee and sent waters fifteen feet deep to lap at the top of the walls.
Location
Prairie du Rocher, IllinoisPrairie du Rocher, Illinois
Prairie du Rocher is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Founded in the French colonial period in the American Midwest, the community is located near bluffs that flank the east side of the Mississippi River along the floodplain often called the "American Bottom".Prairie du...