Struggle For Empire: Early Origins to 1815

1673 A.D.
click to see the outline

BC
23000

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Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explore Mississippi as far south as the Arkansas River and stop in this area. French authorities in Quebec wanted them to determine whether the river emptied into the Pacific and was the famed Northwest Passage to India which had stifled imperial ambitions for over two hundred years. They are the first Europeans to set eyes on the land that would become East St. Louis.

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They record seeing the great Piasa Bird crudely painted by Indians on the bluffs near present day Alton, Illinois, (named for Alton Easton, one of the children of Rufus Easton, founder of the city). According to legend, the great bird devoured men and was only overcome by the heroic sacrifice of a brave young chief. Their journal recorded that they encountered monster fish (catfish) that threatened to destroy their canoes.

Click here to read more on Marquette and Jolliet's travels in Cahokia: The Dawn

French Catholics in America are promised religious freedom by terms of the treaty. Cahokia at this time is a flourishing village while St. Louis doesn't yet exist.