(2) Kaskaskia, Fort de Chartres, and Prairie 
du Rocher once served as the western boundary of 
the United States. 
(3) The 1752 French census documents that 
Kaskaskia had a population of 275 White people, 
246 Blacks, 75 Indians, and 77 mixed blood (Indian 
and white ancestry) making it a multi-ethnic com-
munity. Enslaved people from Africa began arriving 
in Kaskaskia by 1720 with skills as blacksmiths, 
joiners, masons, etc., precisely the skills needed to 
build the 1759 Fort of Kaskaskia. 
(4) Fort de Chartres was erected in 1720 by 
France and is one of France’s most imposing for-
tifications in North America. It was the administra-
tive center in the era of French Colonial control over 
Louisiana and the Illinois Country. On October 9, 
1960, the Fort was declared a National Historic 
Landmark. 
(5) The Powder Magazine at Fort de Chartres 
is the oldest stone building in the State of Illinois. 
(6) The Guard House at Fort de Chartres con-
tains 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. Mis-
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sionary Father Pierre Gibault taught and ministered 
to the settlers and Native Americans. 
(7) The King of France made land concessions 
to certain entrepreneurs that evolved into villages. 
The Village of Chartres was proximate to Fort de 
Chartres. 
(8) The Mitchigamea or Michigamea were a 
tribe in the Illinois Confederation who established a 
village north of Fort de Chartres. One of their vil-
lages in the American Bottom, inhabited from 1730 
until 1752, is one of the region’s premier archae-
ological sites; it is known as the ‘‘Kolmer Site’’. 
(9) In 1763, Pierre Laclede Liguest quartered 
in the Prairie du Rocher French Colonial District 
where he planned the new village of St. Louis which 
he established in February of 1764. 
(10) On July 4, 1778, General George Rogers 
Clark, with the assistance of Father Pierre Gibault, 
captured Prairie du Rocher and the Village of 
Kaskaskia. 
(11) On November 28, 1803, Meriwether Lewis 
and William Clark visited the Village of Kaskaskia, 
seeking Engages and troops to accompany them on 
the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 
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(12) Recently an American Fort was discovered 
that dates to 1803–1806. The site is next to the 
Garrison Hill Cemetery. 
(13) In 1818, Kaskaskia served as the first 
State Capital of Illinois. 
(14) In 1825, General Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves- 
Roch-Gilbert du Montier de Lafayette visited the 
Village of Kaskaskia. 
(15) In 1876, the religious order, the Adorers 
of the Blood of Christ (ASC), established a convent 
near Prairie du Rocher in rural Ruma to minister to 
the region through education and religious instruc-
tion in southwestern Illinois. The health care needs 
of the people led the Sisters to also create and oper-
ate hospitals. Since 1877 the Sisters staffed schools 
at the request of Pastors. By 1938 their staffing 
helped to open schools in 103 towns. They also 
served in other outreach ministries throughout the 
region. The ASC Convent was built in 1876. It was 
expanded in 1890 and enlarged again in 1925. The 
entire complex was updated in 1980. It served as an 
educational institution and later a high school that 
even offered 30 hours of college credit from St. 
Louis University. 
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(16) The ASC convent site contains a memorial 
to and the remains of five martyred nuns who min-
istered in Liberia, West Africa in 1992. ASC Sisters 
had served there since 1971. 
(17) On January 20, 1961, the Modoc Rock 
Shelter was declared a National Historic Landmark. 
(18) In 1973, the Creole House in Prairie du 
Rocher was added to the National Registry of His-
toric Places. 
(19) In 1974, Prairie du Rocher and the 
French Colonial Historic District, an area of 22 
square miles, was created and added to the National 
Registry of Historic Places, along with the ancient 
Kolmer Indian site. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to— 
(1) recognize the importance of Prairie du 
Rocher and the French Colonial Historic District as 
a nationally significant architectural village of the 
cultural heritage of the United States; 
(2) establish a Prairie du Rocher French Colo-
nial National Historical Park to serve as the focus 
of interpretive and educational programs on the his-
tory of the French Colonial Historic District, and to 
assist in the preservation of historic sites within the 
Prairie du Rocher French Colonial Historic District; 
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(3) recognize the contribution of religious 
women in the development of the country through 
their missions and their intrinsic desire to better the 
lives of people through education, health, and social 
services, and other ministries and in particular 
southwestern Illinois; and 
(4) recognize the existence and contribution of 
the early enslaved African Americans, Indians and 
mixed bloods at Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher 
for their skills as blacksmiths, joiners, and masons, 
etc. 
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRAIRIE DU ROCHER 
FRENCH COLONIAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL 
PARK. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In order to assist in the preserva-
tion and interpretation of, and education concerning, of 
Prairie du Rocher, the French Colonial Historic District, 
the contribution of religious women to the development of 
our country and the existence of a multi-ethnic community 
that was Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher and to provide 
technical assistance to a broad range of public and private 
landowners and preservation organizations, there is hereby 
established the Prairie du Rocher French Colonial Na-
tional Historical Park in the State of Illinois. 
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