Fort de Chartres existed as a succession of three French forts on the Mississippi River in Illinois Country during the 1700s. A partial reconstruction of the final stone fort exists at the original site south of St. Louis. The name honors Louis duc le Chartres, son of the Regent of France.
History
The original wooden fort was built in 1718-1720 by a French contingent from New Orleans upon the occasion of the administration of the Illinois Country being moved from Canada to New Orleans. Governance was transferred to the Company of the Indies and 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 pallisade of logs with two bastions at opposite corners.
Within five years flooding from the Mississippi had left the original fort in bad condition. Construction of a second fort farther 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.
The second wooden fort deteriorated somewhat less rapidly, but by 1742 it was in bad repair. In 1747 the French garrison moved to the region's primary settlement 18 miles to the south at Kaskaskia, and the French debated where to rebuild the fort. Discussions of a stone fortress had begun in the 1730s after the Company of the Indies had failed and governance had reverted to the crown. The government in New Orleans wanted to move the garrison permanently to Kaskaskia, but the local commandant argued for a location near the original.
The decision was eventually reached to build in stone near the first forts rather than at Kaskakia. Construction began in 1753 and was mostly completed in 1756. The limestone fort had walls 15 ft high and 3 ft thick enclosing an area of 4 acres (16,000 m²). The stone for construction was quarried in bluffs about two or three miles distant and had to be ferried across a small lake. In 1763 the Treaty of Paris was signed and the French transferred control of the Illinois Country to Great Britain. The stone fort served as center of French administration of the region for only ten years. The British had difficulty getting a regiment to their newly acquired fort, but on October 10, 1765, the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment took control of the fort and surrounding area. The fort was renamed Fort Cavendish. The British, however, saw little value in the fort and abandoned it in 1771.
Ruin and Reconstruction
The Mississippi continued to take its toll, and 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 the stone for construction bit by bit over the years, and 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.
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, and in the 1930s the WPA rebuilt the gateway and two stone buildings.
Partial reconstruction of the fort's walls followed later. The frames of some additional buildings were erected as a display of the post and beam construction techniques used on 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 one of the largest and oldest in the country, celebrating frontier French and Indian culture. The site is protected by modern levees, but the Mississippi is still an occasional menace. In the flood of 1993 the levee was breached, and water fifteen feet deep lapped at the top of the walls.
References
Last updated: 05-20-2005 03:51:06
