Uncovering Kaskaskia: An Archival, Geophysical, and Archaeological Investigation into the First Capital of Illinois

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Kaskaskia, Illinois was founded in 1706 as a French Jesuit missionary, cradled between two major water sources: Kaskaskia and Mississippi Rivers. It was home to momentous events for the frontier, including the Revolutionary War. In 1818, it became the first capital of Illinois. Disaster struck in the 1880s, when the Mississippi River cut into the Kaskaskia River channel, eroding the eastern edge of the town, effectively distroying the town and its memory in the process. Through archival research methods, geophysical surveys, and an archaeological investigation, it seems that the long lost town is not so lost, just buried under alluvium. Investigations into the house site of Jacques Mette, prove that the entire town was not lost, as memory and previous research suggest it to be.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52871