Fort De Chartres State Historic Site


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The Fort de Chartres State Historical Site is located four miles west of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. This site marks the location of the last of four successive French forts named “de Chartres.” Built in 1753 by the French during their eighteenth-century colonization of the Illinois Country, the massive stone fort was preceded by three wooden forts, with the first fort erected in 1720. Fort de Chartres served as the French seat of government and its chief military installation in Upper Louisiana from 1753 until 1765 when it was occupied by the British. In 1763 France ceded much of its territory in North America, including what is now Illinois, to Great Britain. British troops occupied the fort from 1765 until 1772, when encroachment by the Mississippi River caused a collapse of the south wall. Subsequently, the remaining walls and buildings fell into ruin.

Today, the Fort de Chartres State Historical Sitefeatures an imaginative reconstruction of portions of the third Fort de Chartres. The fort gate, built in the 1920s, has been remodeled several times. Portions of the fort’s walls were reconstructed on original foundations in 1989. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Inside Fort de Chartres are the restored powder magazine, believed to be the oldest building in Illinois, two reconstructed stone buildings, and the exposed foundations of other buildings, two of which have been “ghosted” in wood. The powder magazine is stocked with reproduction barrels and barrel racks. A combination museum and office building, built in 1928 on the foundation of an original fort building, houses exhibits depicting the history of Fort de Chartres and the Illinois Country. The large stone Guard House, reconstructed in 1936, contains a Catholic chapel furnished in the style of the 1750s, along with a priest’s room, a gunner’s room, an officer-of-the-day room, and a guard’s room. Also on the grounds are an operating bake oven, a garden shed built of upright logs in post-on-sill construction, and a kitchen garden with raised beds of produce that would have been grown in eighteenth-century Illinois.  Recreational facilities outside the reproduced fort at the Fort de Chartres State Historical Site include a day-use area with a picnic shelter and grills.

View other French & Indian War Reenactments and Other Events

View Fort de Chartres Colonial Trade Faire and Musket and Rifle Frolic Details

View Kids Day at Fort de Chartres Details

View Annual Fort De Chartres Summer Rendezvous Details

View Friends of Fort de Chartres Summer Ball Details

View Fort de Chartres Muzzle Loading Black Powder Artillery Safety Details

View Fort De Chartres French and Indian War Encampment Details

View Fort De Chartres Winter Rendezvous Details

View La Guiannee at Fort de Chartres Details