Bound to the Western Waters: Searching for Lewis and Clark at Ft. Kaskaskia, Illinois

Summary

Lewis and Clark recruited 11 soldiers from the small US Army outpost of Ft. Kaskaskia (1802-1807), Illinois, in 1803 to join their expedition to explore the American west. This event traditionally has been identified as having occurred at a 1750s French fort of the same name. The 2017 SIU summer field school investigations within the fort walls including the use of LIDAR, GPR, and hand excavations revealed that the fort is primarily a single component French construction dating to the mid-1700s that contains a small number of colonial French artifacts as well as a barracks and bakehouse. No evidence was found that the United States Army later rebuilt and reoccupied the fort in the early 1800s. LIDAR, GPR, and hand investigation of a nearby hilltop known as "Garrison Hill" located an extensive brick scatter intermixed with early 1800s military items that clearly interpreted as representing the remains of the 1802-1807 American Ft. Kaskaskia. This rediscovery of one of the pivotal sites of the Lewis and Clark Expedition not only corrects history but affords an opportunity to recover information on the daily lives and material posessions of American soldiers immediately prior to the start of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19956