French influence abounds on K-C Trail
<p class="p1">EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series highlighting the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail. Follow the continuing story online at www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com.
<p class="p1">The elaborate trail map puts it simply - "Welcome to the King's Road."
<p class="p1">In 2014, the Illinois General Assembly proclaimed the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail as an Illinois Historic and Scenic Route.
<p class="p1">Municipalities and various organizations in the tri-county (Monroe, St. Clair and Randolph) region have been promoting the 60-mile corridor as a travel destination and potential tourism hotspot.
<p class="p1">On June 9, trail officials took media from the three counties on a guided tour of the trail, with several stops along the way.
<p class="p1">About the series:
<p class="p1">The K-C Trail begins in the Immaculate Conception Parish on Kaskaskia Island and extends to the Old Cahokia Courthouse in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
<p class="p1">The Herald Tribune is featuring some of the high-profile stops on the trail, as well as other areas of interest.
<p class="p1">Follow along, in photos and video, as we journey Illinois' first road - a road of legend, lore and ghosts of travelers long since passed.
<p class="p1">Pierre Menard Home
<p class="p1">Located at the base of Garrison Hill bluff near Fort Kaskaskia is the Pierre Menard Home, so-named as the home of Illinois' first lieutenant governor, Pierre Menard (1766-1844).
<p class="p1">Menard, a French-Canadian fur trapper and entrepreneur, began construction on the home in 1800 and it was completed in 1802.
<p class="p1">On its website, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency says the Pierre Menard Home is an "unusually fine example of French Creole-style architecture," with a steep, double-hipped roof and a veranda that wraps the building's front facade listed as its notable features.
<p class="p1">The two-story house, which features some of the Menard family's personal artifacts, also includes a museum and audio-visual room in the basement with living spaces used by the Menard family on the main floor.
<p class="p1">A stone kitchen, complete with brick baking oven, is separate from the main house via a covered walkway and the grounds include a reconstructed smokehouse and springhouse.
<p class="p1">Bought by the State of Illinois in 1929, the Pierre Menard Home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark.
<p class="p1">"I knew nothing about (Menard) until I moved here and I've been just wrapped up in it," said tour guide and gardner Michell Baker. "But I do hope that...especially if we have descendants and we had one here recently…they take it all in being their history and they learn a little bit about the area here and what (Menard) stood for."
<p class="p1">Menard was president of the Illinois Territorial Council from 1812 to 1818 and served as lieutenant governor to Shadrock Bond (Illinois' first governor who is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Chester) from 1818 to 1822 after Illinois achieved statehood in 1818.
<p class="p1">Menard's election required a special constitutional convention as he had never been formally naturalized, being a native of Quebec.
<p class="p1">Menard left office in 1822 and intended to spend the rest of his life in retirement with his family. However, he was called to duty in 1828 by President John Quincy Adams and appointed to an Indian commission led by Lewis Cass.
<p class="p1">As part of that commission he successfully negotiated the Treaty of Green Bay on August 25, 1828 with the Winnebago and the United Tribes of the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi.
<p class="p1">The treaty ceded lands in the territory of Michigan and all lands in the state of Illinois between the Illinois River and the Fever River.
<p class="p1">This area would later become Chicago.
<p class="p1">"I just enjoy all the pieces," Baker said. "Whether I'm giving a tour, talking to people who are interested in the Home, learning from other people - either family members or historians know things that I didn't know that I've learned - to just being very honored to present the Home to other people."
<p class="p1">Creole House
<p class="p1">Further along the trail is the Creole House in Prairie du Rocher.
<p class="p1">Built in the 1820s by Dr. Robert McDonald, who migrated to the area from South Carolina, the Creole House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and has been restored by the Randolph County Historical Society.
<p class="p1">None of the original furnishings are currently in the house, but there is a china cabinet that was once owned by Shadrock Bond. The house is considered unique because it features both American and French influences in its architecture.
<p class="p1">"It was occupied when the historical society bought in 1973," said tour guide Colleen Godier Schilling. "I lived here, my grandma and grandpa raised my dad and his two brothers here and then my mom and dad lived here on this side - it was a duplex - and then we lived here.
<p class="p1">"I was 10 years old when we moved out. It's never had any running water in it or anything."
<p class="p1">Fort de Chartres
<p class="p1">Built by the French in 1753 near Prairie du Rocher, the current stone fort was preceded by three wooden forts - the first of which was erected in 1720.
<p class="p1">The fort was designed not as a defensible fort - the walls are only 3 feet thick - but as an administrative and economic center for the area.
<p class="p1">"All the forts were built right in this immediate area," said David Schultz, site services specialist for Fort de Chartres, Fort Kaskaskia and Pierre Menard Home state historic sites. "And they all served basically the same purpose, which was to be the center of French government in the Illinois Country - which basically was the whole upper Louisiana territory - and also be the center of trade."
<p class="p1">According to an illustrated depiction of the fort in its heydey, the Mississippi River was no more than 300 yards from the fort's River Gate.
<p class="p1">The fort also included two barracks, commandants house, powder magazine, government house, bake house and guard house.
<p class="p1">The powder magazine, the only structure to have survived throughout the history of the fort, was restored in 2004.
<p class="p1"> It is believed to be the oldest building in Illinois.
<p class="p1">"When the French came here, they were hoping it would be a great place to get furs, which it was not," Schultz said. "They were also hoping it would be a great place to get precious metals, which it was also not.
<p class="p1">"But, it being in a floodplain, it had very rich soil and so, they were able to grow a lot of wheat and wheat was the major thing they transported up and down the river."
<p class="p1">A combination museum/office building, which was built in 1928 on the foundation of the former kings storehouse, houses exhibits depicting the history of the fort and the Illinois Country.
<p class="p1">Other areas of interest include the land gate, which was reconstructed in its original location along the rear wall of the fort, and the guard house, which was reconstructed in 1936.