County: Randolph
Location: The marker is located on
the east side of Route 3, 3.5 miles north of Ellis Grove and
approximately 18 miles above Chester at a turn-out area.
N 37o 03.163 W 089o 56.006
Erected: 07/28/1965 Erected by: Illinois Department of Transportation and The Illinois State Historical Society
' A more congenial soil for general cultivation I believe no where exists, it may be called the Elysium of America.' That is how a settler in 1817 described the American Bottom, the lowland between the Mississippi River and the bluffs to the east which stretches from the Wood River to the Kaskaskia. Hundreds of years ago an agricultural people settled in this silt-filled channel of an ancient river and raised crops to feed their large cities. Today many mounds in the area stand as monuments to this early civilazation. The American Bottom served as the center of settlement for the French, the British and finally the Americans in Illinois for over a hundred years. At the height of French activity after 1700 probably no more than 2,000 Frenchmen and Negroes lived in the region but they produced the grain for posts on the Ohio and lower Mississippi, explored the surrounding territory for mineral wealth and established Fort de Chartres. The British took the land form the French in 1763 but their interest in the American Bottom was slight. When Goerge Rogers Clark led his small army to the area in 1778 he captured Kaskaskia and the other villages without striking a blow. Under the Americans, Kaskaskia became the territorial and the first state capitol . Illinois highway maps indicate several parks and memorials between Chester and East St. Louis which will take you back into the intriguing history of the American Bottom.
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