In the early 1700s, the middle of North America, both banks of the Mighty Mississippi, fell under colonial claims by Louis XIV, then Louis XV of France. Even after France ceded large areas of New France to Great Britain in 1713, French holdings in North America still dwarfed, in land area, if not European population, the British colonies strung up and down the Atlantic coast.
New France. Note Fort de Chartres in lower left quadrant of image.
But, while the British colonies grew, both in population and in the proliferation of settled places, New France was a different kind of colony, secured less by larger towns and cities, and more by fortified outposts meant to secure the French fur trade. With trade routes leading to a handful of population centers on rivers, places like Montreal, Quebec and New Orleans, or at seaports, like Biloxi and Mobile, the commerce of New France became dependent upon dozens of garrisoned, fortified and strategically located trading posts.
When the 18th Century dawned, the Sun King, Louis XIV, ruled the most powerful nation in Europe as well as the seemingly limitless potential of the French colonial claims in New France. It would not have been unreasonable to predict that most of North America would someday speak French.
But, in 1701, when Spanish King Charles II died childless, the French King backed his grandson Philip d’Anjou’s claim to the Spanish crown. At the time Spain controlled vast North and South American colonies, as well as claims in Europe to the Netherlands and much of Italy. Unifying those lands with an already ascendant France would have created a European power of enormity not seen since the height of the Roman Empire.
Philip’s coronation provoked a war, the War of Spanish Succession, pitting Spain and France against Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria. After more than a decade of conflict, some of which spilled over into the North American colonies, French Bourbon ascendancy, as the top European power, began a descent toward irrelevancy, starting with a settlement that obliged Philip to renounce the French crown in order to keep his Spanish throne, while also ceding away many of Spain’s lands elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile, France started down a long road of ceding parts of New France to other European powers.
The development of Illinois’ Fort de Chartres began in about 1720 —
Located four miles west of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, the site marks the location of the last of four successive French forts named “de Chartres.” Built in 1753 by the French during their eighteenth-century colonization of the Illinois Country, the massive stone fort was preceded by three wooden forts, with the first fort erected in 1720. Fort de Chartres served as the French seat of government and its chief military installation in Upper Louisiana from 1753 until 1765 when it was occupied by the British. In 1763 France ceded much of its territory in North America, including what is now Illinois, to Great Britain. British troops occupied the fort from 1765 until 1772, when encroachment by the Mississippi River caused a collapse of the south wall. Subsequently, the remaining walls and buildings fell into ruin.
The site was in complete ruin by the time that William Clark reached it in 1803 on his way to meet Meriwether Lewis and form up the Corps of Discovery to ascend and explore the Missouri River to study the vast new lands that American President, Thomas Jefferson, had just purchased from French Emperor Napoleon in the Louisiana Purchase.
Them after the passage of more than a hundred more years, enter the Great Depression, Franklyn D. Roosevelt and the brilliantly conceived and executed New Deal jobs program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Follow past the fold for a short photo essay of this unique historic site.
When the WPA arrived at the ruins in the 1930’s only a single structure remained intact at the location, the original powder magazine, an understandably sturdy and well-reinforced, small building. This structure is widely regarded as the oldest surviving European building in the State of Illinois.
Fort de Chartres Powder Magazine
The WPA’s archeologist, surveyors, historians, stone cutter, masons, laborers and archivists used the information from the site and records, combined it with the abundant native limestone nearby and recreated the 15 foot tall stone walls, as well as other important buildings, and the foundations of the site’s other principal structures.
Bakery
Of course they. built a bakery. They’re French.
Chapel, priest quarters, officer’s day room, guard room,
Situated in a remote rural spot, up against the Mississippi River levee, the beautiful site of the Fort readily evokes a sense of the isolation that original occupants must have felt, so far away from their European homes.
River Gate
As will happen at such locations, nature moves in and feels right at home. Hence, in the foundations of what was, once, one of two large barracks for the garrison, we found a family of skunks —
Shhhh! Do Not Disturb.
As a septuagenarian, overweight, diabetic with Type A blood and a benign lung tumor, COVID-19 justifiably terrifies me. Still, I have to find ways to get out of the house safely. Little day trips to places like this are helping me stay sane.
Stay safe, but get out, carefully, distanced, and go see . . . something . . . anything.
P.S. Bless ideas like the WPA. Thanks to them, we have the only reconstructed site of its kind, of all of the dozens that once existed in North America. We’re gonna need that kind of jobs program again, and soon.