1600s - Early 1800s - Explorers' era of Southernmost Illinois
Explorers Marquette and Joliet in 1673 wrote of the unusual Tower Rock in the Mississippi, art work on the rock bluffs, in what is now Union County, and the terrible mosquitoes at the mouth of the Ohio River.
A French buffalo-hide tanning plant - Va Bache near Joppa in 1703 (not far from Fort Wilkinsonville, but a century earlier) led to the brutal slaughter of 13,000 buffalo that roamed Southern Illinois. Outposts were set up across the region, from not far outside current St. Louis, to northern Tennessee, to receive the skins. The skins took seven years to process. Native Americans did not like the operation. Malaria struck, and the tanning operation stopped.
While George Washington's troops survived the Valley Forge winter of 1777-78, then routed the British from Philadelphia, George Rogers Clark took Illinois territory (Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincinnes) from the redcoats on the western front [map: Massac to Kaskaskia].
George Rogers Clark established Fort Jefferson, or Clarksville, KY, just south of present Wickliffe, a few miles south of the Ohio-Mississippi confluence, to help maintain the Southern Illinois and Indiana forts he had taken for Virginia. Fort Jefferson was short lived. UKy description | Rootsweb details | map
A Ballard County History says Fort Jefferson was put back into action, and Fort Holt, north of Wickliffe, was used during the Civil War.
One of the oldest roads in Southernmost Illinois is the Caledonia Road connecting Caledonia Landing with Jonesboro, and "lined with chicken feathers". Perhaps the oldest road used by European settlers of the area is the Wilkinsonville, Cape Girardeau, Kaskaskia trail, mentioned in these memoirs.
Cantonment Wilkinsonville, a large U.S. military camp used for only a few years, overlooked the Ohio near Grand Chain at the top of the Ohio River's crescent shape, between Cairo and Metropolis. Cantonment Wilkinsonville is one of Southernmost Illinois' best kept secrets. Many longtime residents near the site are not even aware it existed. Wilkinsonville helped the United States win and almost helped lose the West. Lewis and Clark did not stop as they passed. Check history references for the Wilkinson - Aaron Burr conspiracy.
Then they stopped four days in Cairo (map of campsite location) to familiarize themeselves with their surveying instruments.
Here's a map of the Mississippi / Ohio River confluence drawn by Lewis & Clark. Until the Louisiana Purchase seven months earlier, the future site of Cairo had been the western edge of the country.
While at Cairo, they practiced using their navigation equipment and began daily logs (example). The canoe pictured is a style used in that time.
Lewis and Clark made their way north on the Mississippi, spending a few nights on sandbars, etc. They stopped in Cape Girardeau. Then, like Marquette and Joliet in 1673, they were fascinated with the "Grand Tower Rock near Union County's nortwestern corner." Lutherans from Germany landed at Tower Rock a few decades later (1839), and began a major North American synod.
Perrin du Lac traveled the Ohio River in 1801-1803. His diary says he found Wilkinsonville and the remains of Ft. Massac.
Less than 10 years after President Jefferson closed Wilkinsonville, and only a few miles downstream along the Ohio, a new city was laid out to replace Washington, D.C., as the hub of the country, both geographically and politically.
Washington, D.C. burned in 1812. Planners drew elaborate maps of a new city just north of Mound City to replace the nation's capitol. The new city for a time was home to 700 people. But it faded. Riverboats couldn't land there because of a sandbar. Fire, possibly arson, burned the town. Disease epidemics took many lives. D.C. was rebuilt. The Southern Illinois town is still listed on some maps as "America", and some street signs still bear the names of states, but now consists of only a few rural houses.
Old Shawneetown, Illinois, in Gallatin County along the Ohio River, has the oldest bank in Illinois that once refused a loan to folks from the north, because "Chicago would never amount to anything."
The Rose Hotel at Elizabethtown was an inn for Ohio River Valley travelers of more than 100 years ago. It is restored, and offers a panoramic view up and down the Ohio.
Cave-In-Rock was an Ohio River landmark and curiosity as early as 1729. It had real pirates ready to steal from and kill unsuspecting settlers headed west. The exterior of the cave is shown in the 1950s classic film, "How the West Was Won," with Walter Brennan portraying the head pirate. More from ( IllinoisHistory ) .
Many flatboats came down the Ohio, carrying a family's entire possessions. Many were recycled for their lumber, but one was recently found. Schwegman article. Researchers found a flatboat near 'America' [pics].
In 1830, Congress passed a bill permitting the removal of all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River. The Cherokee "Trail of Tears" [-more-] [-more-] in 1838-1839 crossed the Ohio at Golconda then followed what is now Rt. 146 through Vienna, Anna, Jonesboro, to Cape Girardeau, as they came from the Carolinas to Oklahoma [map]. The white settlers' greed for their gold mines helped force them out.
Trail of Tears Encampment
6890 State Route 146
Buncombe (Johnson County)
In 1820, the Bridges Family established a tavern and a wayside store in far southern Illinois for guests traveling Old Lusk´s Ferry Road, between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In 1838, this route, which became known as the “Trail of Tears,’ was used for the forced removal of Cherokee Indians from the southeastern U.S. According to published sources from the period, part of the Bridges´ property was used as a winter encampment for the Cherokees. The timber-plank walls of the wayside store—the state´s only known surviving structure with a connection to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail—remain intact within an existing barn on the property.
