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Visitors Guide to
Randolph County
Illinois
Where Illinois
Began
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The history of Randolph County begins as far back as
8000 B.C. with Native Americans using the limestone bluff overhangs of the
area as shelter. European influence on the area began when Joliet and
Marquette passed through the area in 1673. Traveling up the Mississippi
River nine years later La Salle gave the name Louisiana to the entire
mid-American region. Once the area was claimed by France, French fur traders
began immigrating to the area. In 1703 Kaskaskia was the first village to be
founded and in 1718 the French authorities established Fort de Chartres to provide military
protection and become the center of civil authority for the region. Settlers were attracted to the region because of the fertile
land. The sixty mile long strip of land on the Illinois' bank of the
Mississippi River between the river and the bluffs is now known as the
American Bottom. Along with the town of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, the region
became
the breadbasket of France's Louisiana Territory.
At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763,
France ceded all French territory east of the Mississippi River to the
British and Fort de Chartres was the last French Fort to fly the French flag
east of the Mississippi. Randolph County played a part in the American
Revolution. On July 4, 1778, George Rogers Clark and his "Long
Knives" captured the town of Kaskaskia and Fort Gage from the British without firing a shot as part of his campaign to secure what was then the
Northwest Territory for the budding American Republic. The Americans
established Fort Kaskaskia which supplied Lewis and Clark’s Corps of
Discovery with men, supplies, and information when it passed through the
area in 1803. Kaskaskia was chosen as the seat of government when Illinois
became a territory in 1809 . A rented house in Kaskaskia became the capitol
when Illinois became a state in 1818 but relinquished this role when the
seat of government was relocated to Vandalia in 1820. The original Kaskaskia
has vanished, becoming victim to the Mississippi floods, which eventually
destroyed the town in 1881. This flood created a new channel that flowed
east of where Kaskaskia was relocated making it the only Illinois town located west
of the Mississippi River.
Visitors to the Great River Road region of Randolph
County will find a variety of historical and entertaining things to do and
experience the early French, British and American influences on the region.
Events occur throughout the year at Fort de Chartres including the Annual
Rendezvous in early June, one of the
largest events of it's type in the Midwest. Fort Kaskaskia and the Pierre
Menard Home also host annual events, and the town of Chester holds a popular
Popeye celebration in September.
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