Location: Johnson County
Dedicated: July 1, 2003
Erected by Bowman’s Company, Illinois Humanities Council, and Illinois State Historical Society
GIS: N37.31.353 W88.57.928
This marker commemorates the July 1, 1778, campsite for Lt. Col. Clark’s troop of 170 volunteers. At the time, the site had a nearby spring and was north of a place called Buffalo Gap. The men were marching from Fort Massac to capture the British post at Kaskaskia. This attack and a later one at Vincennes, Indiana, prevented the British and their Indian allies from invading Kentucky. It also secured the Illinois Territory for the United States during the Revolutionary War.