Fort de Chartres State Historic Site

Fort de Chartres was the principal French military fortification in the Illinois Country, built in its final stone form in the 1750s. Transferred to the British after France ceded the Illinois Country in 1763, it served as the administrative center of the region until Kaskaskia became the primary town. By 1778 the fort was partially abandoned, but its ruins formed the backdrop of British power in the Illinois Country that Clark's campaign extinguished. The reconstructed fort is now a state historic site with substantial surviving stone walls and interpretive exhibits on French colonial and early American history.