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Mission Statement To enhance the community by addressing economic development issues and business growth, as well as promoting the well being of Prairie du Rocher as a whole.

Prairie du Rocher ("Prairie of the Rock" in French) is a village in Randolph County, Illinois founded in the French colonial period in the American Midwest. The community is located near bluffs that flank the east side of the Mississippi River in the area often called the "American Bottom". Prairie du Rocher is one of the oldest communities founded in 1722 as a French settlement that survives in the 21st century. The original Fort de Chartres was named in honor of Louis duc de Chartres, son of the regent of France. The fort was the site of a French military fortification and colonial headquarters was originally established in 1718-19. This wooden stockade was surrounded by a dry moat and held several interior buildings. The stockade quickly deteriorated due to frequent flooding. The fort and town were a center of government and commerce at the time when France claimed a vast territory in North America, New France, which stretched from Louisiana and the Illinois Country to Canada. Work on a larger fort, located farther inland, began around 1725. By 1731 the Company of the Indies went out of business due to bad management, poor relations with the local Native Americans, and the failure to discover any gold or other precious metals. In January of 1731 the company returned control of Louisiana back to the king. In 1747, with the second fort in considerable disrepair, the garrison relocated to nearby Kaskaskia. During the 1730's the French leaders began discussing building a stone fort to protect their interests in the region. Though no precious metals were found, profitable lead deposits had been found on the west bank of the Mississippi near Ste. Genevieve and the rich bottom lands yielded substantial crops which fed New Orleans, St. Louis, and the rest of the territory. Construction of the new fort was slow due to dissension on where the fort was to be located. Construction finally began in the 1750's and although the fort was operational by 1754, additions and improvements continued until 1760. In 1763 France surrendered the Illinois Country along with most of its North American possessions to Great Britain when it signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War. British troops of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment took possession of Fort de Chartres on October 10, 1765. The British did little with the newly renamed Fort Cavendish although its engineers attempted in vain to control the erosion caused by the Mississippi. Eventually the British concluded that the fort had little value and it was abandoned in 1771. A year later the south wall and bastions collapsed into the Mississippi River. Continued flooding, erosion and decay caused the fort to slowly disappear so that by 1900 the only remnant of the fort that existed above ground was the powder magazine considered by many to be the oldest building in Illinois. (Excerpt taken from http://www.greatriverroad.com/stegen/randattract/chartres.htm)

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Prairie du Rocher Chamber of Commerce  P.O. Box 342 Prairie du Rocher, IL 62277 618-284-7308 pdrchamber@htc.net

Historic Sites

Creole House

Fort de Chartres

Village Hall

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