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 Fort de Chartres III was constructed by the French along
the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, in what was the Illinois Country,
during the mid-to-late 1750s. This large stone fortification was the economic
center of the French presence in the mid-continent through the middle 1760s
when the lands were surrendered to the British. Abandoned in the 1770s by the
British, the stone from the fort’s curtain walls and interior buildings was
salvaged by local settlers to such an extent, that by the 1850s all that was
present at the fort was the badly deteriorated remains of a barrel vaulted
powder magazine. In the early 1910s, this site became one of Illinois’ first
state parks. Over the years, the powder magazine was restored a number of
times—each time creating a new (and relatively inappropriate) roof system for
the building. In early 2000, the State of Illinois initiated plans to restore
the powder magazine, and reconstruct yet another (albeit more historically
appropriate) roof structure. Prior to the construction activity,
archaeological testing was conducted around this mid-eighteenth century
structure—which is the oldest extant building in the state of Illinois.
Although the archaeological investigations were limited in scope, the
excavations documented unique subsurface structural information and came away
with a small—albeit significant—sample of eighteenth century materials
associated with this structure. One of the more exciting items uncovered was a
sample of what appears to represent roofing slate, suggesting that this early
structure was probably roofed with slate imported from France. The use of
stone as a building material for the curtain walls at de Chartres, as well as
the select use of such exotic building materials as slate on the powder
magazine roof, sent a message of permanence to the surrounding non-French
inhabitants of, and visitors to, the Illinois Country. Although the fort
probably would not have withstood artillery, the symbolic “appearance of
strength” was a critical factor to the 1750s rebuilding of Fort de Chartres.
To view a draft of the contract report,
click here. |
