History of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers Confluence Area

History of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers Confluence Area. . , European Settlement , European settlement in the region began with French explorers and Jesuit priests that paddled into the area from the north. They established the villages/missionaries of Cahokia in 1699 and Kaskaskia in 1703 to cohabitate with the indigenous natives to convert them to Catholicism, promote trade and settlement, becoming an active region of the French Empire of Upper Louisiana. , The original French colonial village of Kaskaskia was located approximately 2.5 miles southeast of the lock and dam site on the west bank of the Kaskaskia River approximately 7 river miles above its historic confluence with the Mississippi near Chester II, which was founded in 1819, more than one hundred years after Kaskaskia village settlement., Kaskaskia Tribal Village , About 3 miles northwest of original Kaskaskia village, a smaller, Kaskaskia tribal village with Jesuit mission was established in 1719 and remained a Kaskaskia and Michigames tribal village until 1832 when they ceded their land to the Federal government and were moved out of the state. This village historic site is located less than one mile from here along Lock and Dam Road, which is an original segment of the KCT. , From Colonial French to British to American , Kaskaskia grew as a French colonial village throughout the 1700's. Colonists improved a native people overland trail connecting to Cahokia called the "Kings Road". From 1756 to 1763, France and Great Britain fought the French and Indian War in North America. It was during this period that Fort Kaskaskia was built to provide Kaskaskia defense against the British and hostile tribes. With Great Britain's victory in 1763, the French colony came under British control until 1778 when Col George Rogers Clark and his Virginia Militia captured the region for the United States of America during the American Revolutionary War. , Early American Kaskaskia , American settlement of the region began in earnest after the Revolutionary War and Kaskaskia grew as a western frontier community for the new nation with its strategic location by the Mississippi River. In 1803, Lewis and Clark stopped at Kaskaskia to get supplies and recruited 12 men from the area for their epic journey to explore the new Louisiana Purchase western lands. Kaskaskia became the Illinois territorial capital in 1809 and was the first state capital from 1818-1820 when Illinois became the 21st state in the nation. In an 1810 population census, Kaskaskia was listed as having 7,267 residents, and remained a "gateway to the west" until the mid-1800's. , The K-C Trail is a 60-mile corridor running through Randolph, Monroe and St. Clair Counties. The trail dates back to use by Native American civilizations as long ago as 11,000 BC. It played an integral part in French Colonization, and remained a main road through the founding of Illinois as a state. It remains a highly trafficked route in the Metro East St. Louis Region.