Our school district takes wonderful day trips. This month we went to southern Illinois where we visited
Prairie du Rocher and Fort Chartres about 4 miles west. This area was one of the first French settlements in the United States---the French came down from Canada. They established Fort Chartres on the Mississippi River---first with a wooden fort and then with stones from the nearby limestone bluffs. Although most of it has been re-created, visitors can see the powder building above and foundations of the original structures.
Prairie du Rocher was an old French settlement meaning "Meadow of the Rock" because beneath the rock bluffs lies a huge area of what looked like a meadow, but was really a flood plain. The top soil is about 4 feet deep---the richest soil in North America and is known as Columbia or American Bottoms. According to the map below---44,000 acres. Today, not many live in that area because of the 1993 flood.
We visited St. Joseph Catholic Church founded in 1752 in Praire du Rocher. Below is a quilt with the history of the area. I liked how it also reflected the stained glass seen in the sanctuary. Although this structure isn't particularly old, it was still pretty and warm. For an old French church in Illinois,
click here---last month's trip.
Most of the French sites in this are are located in what is a flood plain. One town, Valmeyer, has mostly re-located on top of the bluff.
Click here for more information on the Flood of 1993. See the map below for the locations of Prairie du Rocher and Valmeyer during that flood.
Our school district takes wonderful day trips. This month we went to southern Illinois where we visited Prairie du Rocher and Fort Chartres about 4 miles west. This area was one of the first French settlements in the United States---the French came down from Canada. They established Fort Chartres on the Mississippi River---first with a wooden fort and then with stones from the nearby limestone bluffs. Although most of it has been re-created, visitors can see the powder building above and foundations of the original structures.
Prairie du Rocher was an old French settlement meaning "Meadow of the Rock" because beneath the rock bluffs lies a huge area of what looked like a meadow, but was really a flood plain. The top soil is about 4 feet deep---the richest soil in North America and is known as Columbia or American Bottoms. According to the map below---44,000 acres. Today, not many live in that area because of the 1993 flood.
We visited St. Joseph Catholic Church founded in 1752 in Praire du Rocher. Below is a quilt with the history of the area. I liked how it also reflected the stained glass seen in the sanctuary. Although this structure isn't particularly old, it was still pretty and warm. For an old French church in Illinois, click here---last month's trip.
Most of the French sites in this are are located in what is a flood plain. One town, Valmeyer, has mostly re-located on top of the bluff. Click here for more information on the Flood of 1993. See the map below for the locations of Prairie du Rocher and Valmeyer during that flood.
No comments:
Post a Comment