Fort St Louis at Starved Rock, IL

Starved Rock State Park is located on the Illinois River, about 80 miles southwest of Chicago,IL. Here, glacial melt cut deeply through sandstone bluffs creating a deep, narrow canyons.

In May 1673, Louis Jolliet, Father Marquette and five more Frenchmen were the first Europeans to travel through the area. They were returning to St.Ignace (in the upper peninsula of Michigan) from an exploration of the upper Mississippi River. Their trip increased knowledge of North American geography and spread French influence among the American Indian tribes of the upper Mississippi Valley.

In 1675, Father Marquette returned to Starved Rock to build a Mission in the Kaskaskia Indian village located on the Illinois River.

Eventually, the French claimed the entire Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes. To hold their claim, they built a fort at the Straits of Mackinac where Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior join. As a southern defense, the French built Fort St. Louis atop Starved Rock in the winter of 1682-83. The site was chosen because of its commanding strategic position high above the last rapids on the Illinois River.

In February 1684, the new fort was attacked by 500 Iroquois warriors. Sharing command of the fort where explorer Henri Tonti and a French army officer, Chevalier Baugy. They commanded a small force of twenty-two French soldiers, traders, trappers and craftsmen. In addition, twenty-four Shawnee, Miami and Loup warriors and their families were protected by the forts’ sturdy walls.

Perched 170 feet above the river, Fort St Louis could not be taken by direct assault. The Iroquois tried and were driven off. The invaders had no choice but to besiege the place. The French were short of food and gunpowder. . . but so were the Iroquois who had traveled a great distance on foot. With their food supplies mostly consumed, the Iroquois were soon depleting the local game. For eight days the Iroquois hung on, sniping and probing the forts’ defenses. Failing to gain a foothold, the Iroquois realized they had no other choice but to withdraw.

The French abandoned Fort St Louis in the early 1700s and built Fort Pimitoui in Peoria. Fort St. Louis became a haven for traders and trappers for a dozen years or so. By 1720 all remains of the fort were gone.

The diorama pictured was researched and built by the History/Social Science Department and students of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois. This reconstruction is based on descriptions of the fort by LaSalle, Henri Joutel, property deeds and business and French army documents. These sources describe the fort of 1684 as upright logs and earthworks of about 600 feet in circumference which protected housing for between eleven and fifty men, contained seven bastions, a storehouse, forge, officers’ quarters, a chapel and at least three traders’ log cabins.