Kaskaskia, Illinois

City: Kaskaskia

County: Randolph

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 37.9167, -89.9000

Kaskaskia, located on an island in the Mississippi River, was established in the late seventeenth century and was an important early white settlement. The town functioned as the capital of Illinois Territory from 1809-1818 and became the first capital of the new state of Illinois. Kaskaskia also served as the seat of Randolph County government until 1844, when a devastating flood forced a move to Chester, directly across the Mississippi River to the east.

Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman, 1972), 72, 118, 120; E. J. Montague, The History of Randolph County, Illinois, Including Old Kaskaskia Island (1859); copied, (Sparta, IL: Elisabeth Pinkerton Leighty, 1948), 2, 26.