Kaskaskia

The Kaskaskia River flows southwest across the Illinois country to join the Mississippi. It takes its name from one of the peoples of the Illinois, whose villages and fields once lay across the region. The French explorers Jolliet and Marquette visited a Kaskaskia village on the upper Illinois River in 1673, opening a period of sustained contact with French traders and missionaries.

In 1703 Kaskaskia people and Jesuit missionaries established a settlement near the river's mouth. French traders settled alongside them, and the village grew into a centre of the Illinois country. Epidemics, including smallpox in 1704, took a heavy toll on the Kaskaskia people. A French earthwork fort was built in 1759, shortly before the territory passed to Britain. Kaskaskia later became the capital of the Illinois Territory in 1809.