Fort Kaskaskia (Chester, Illinois)
Chester · Illinois · American Revolution
History & Significance
French settlers established a trading post at Kaskaskia in 1703, near an existing Illiniwek village, and then built an earthworks fort in 1759. Around 1759, the French began building the fort to defend the village of Kaskaskia, but ended construction when they learned that they had lost the French and Indian War to Britain.
Only the outer walls, barracks, and kitchen appear to have been built by the time the fort was abandoned in 1760. The French officially ceded the land to the British in 1763, but French-speaking people remained.
When the British gained control of the area after the French and Indian War, the French residents of Kaskaskia destroyed the fort. In early 1778, George Rogers Clark, eager to defend what was western Virginia and the Kentucky country from attacks by Native Americans allied to the British, led a tiny force down the Ohio River.
They arrived at Kaskaskia on July 4, 1778. After facing a threat from a British force at Vincennes, Indiana, Clark and his men used Kaskaskia as their jumping-off place to capture Vincennes in early 1779. Founded in 1703, the town was for more than a century the region's principal commercial center, also serving from 1818 to 1820 as the first capital of Illinois.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Earthen redoubt overlooking the Mississippi River
- George Rogers Clark's strategic position during the American Revolution
- 200-acre state historic site with scenic bluff views
- Interpretation of vanished frontier town of Old Kaskaskia
- Trail system through the historic landscape
Sources
- https://dnrhistoric.illinois.gov/experience/sites/site.fort-kaskaskia.html
- https://www.nps.gov/places/fort-kaskaskia.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Kaskaskia_State_Historic_Site
- https://scrcexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/sihistory/fortkaskaskia
- https://lewis-clark.org/a-military-corps/fort-kaskaskia/
- https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/george-rogers-clark
- https://cai.siu.edu/research/recent-fieldwork/ft-kaskaskia.php