2025 Fort de Chartres State Historic Site Special Events
at Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du Rocher.
For Special Event information, email lesamisdufortdechartres@gmail.com
For site information, call (618) 284-7230.
8th Annual Fort de Chartres Heritage Jardin Potager Seed Swap
Saturday, March 8, 2025, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
@ Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du
Rocher. The event is open and free to general public. For site information call (618) 284-7230 or email heritage@fdcjardin.com for event information.
Fort de Chartres Heritage Jardin Potager Project will help gardeners prepare for spring with an annual échange de grains (seed swap) that offers heirloom seeds, advice on preparing raised beds, and tips on pruning fruit trees during an annual event to take place on Saturday, March 8, from 10 a.m. to noon, in the Fort de Chartres Guards’ Room.
Fort de Chartres Colonial Market Faire
Saturday and Sunday, April 5 & 6, 2025
Saturday, April 5, 10 AM-5 PM
Sunday, April 6, 10 AM-3 PM
@ Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du Rocher. The event is open and free to general public. For more information contact the site at (618) 284-7230 or email lesamisdufortdechartres@gmail.com. The Colonial Trade Faire is a JURIED living history event for participants depicting the Illinois Country ca. 1750-1790. Visitors to Fort de Chartres State Historic Site on April 5 & 6 are welcomed to experience a part of the Village of Fort de Chartres, in ‘Le Pays des Illinois’ (The Land of Illinois) 1750 – 1790. The weekend promises a bustling community of shops and craftspeople, along with demonstrations and a shooting competition. The public can stroll down sutler’s row to shop and visit merchants and blanket traders selling their reproduction period goods. The annual Colonial Trade Faire is sponsored by Les Amis du Fort de Chartres.
The 55th Annual Fort de Chartres Rendezvous
Saturday & Sunday, June 7 & June 8, 2025
Saturday, June 7, 10 AM-5 PM
Sunday, June 8, 10 AM-3 PM
@ Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du Rocher. The event is open and free to general public with special event parking for this event just $10 a car. Donations welcomed. For site information call (618) 284-7230 or for event information, email lesamisdufortdechartres@gmail.com.
The two-day popular annual Rendezvous, held the first weekend in June, features shooting competitions, military drills, dancing, music, food, and traders of eighteenth-century-style goods.
The boom of cannons, the smell of campfires and a parade of colorful uniforms will transport visitors back to the 1700s on June 7 and 8 at Fort de Chartres State Historic Site’s annual Rendezvous, the largest gathering of its kind anywhere in the Midwest, attracting many thousands to the site during this 2-day special event.
The Rendezvous features 1700s military units, traditional craft demonstrations, period music and dancing, black powder shooting events and cannon firings – all from the time when France controlled what is now Illinois. Visitors can try their hand at throwing a tomahawk, buy hand-made crafts, learn about French kitchen gardens, and watch swordsmen duel, taste delicious food and much more. This event is hosted by Les Coureurs des Bois de Fort de Chartres and sponsored by Les Amis du Fort de Chartres.
Fort de Chartres Winter Rendezvous
Saturday & Sunday, November 1 & 2, 2025
Saturday, November 1, 10 AM-5 PM
Sunday, November 2, 10 AM-3PM
@ Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du Rocher. The event is open and free to the general public. For site information call (618) 284-7230 or for event information, email lesamisdufortdechartres@gmail.com.
This event features 18th and early 19th century camp life and re-enactors who participate in a muzzleloader woods walk shooting competition.
Fort de Chartres State Historic Site presents a weekend of colorful clothing, hand-made crafts, period music and delicious food when the annual Winter Rendezvous returns November 1 & 2.
Soldiers, trappers, traders and Native Americans (as portrayed by historic re-enactors) will gather at the rendezvous. They’ll trade goods, buy supplies, and some will take part in a shooting contest that requires them to walk through the woods and fire flintlocks at pop-up targets.
The rendezvous is fun both for the participants demonstrating frontier life from 1700 to1820 and for visitors spending an autumn day wandering among the tents, campfires, and historic French colonial fort.
La Guiannee at Fort de Chartres
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Wednesday, December 31, 7 PM-9 PM
@ Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du Rocher. The event is open and free to the general public. For site information call (618) 284-7230 or for event information, email lesamisdufortdechartres@gmail.com.
The Prairie du Rocher La Guiannee visits the site to play period music and sing.
In a traditional celebration dating back to 1722, the La Guiannee singers will visit houses and Fort de Chartres in the early French town of Prairie du Rocher and sing for the residents. As part of the tradition, the residents provide refreshments for the singers at each stop. It is cosponsored by Fort de Chartres and the Prairie du Rocher La Guiannee Society.
Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, which includes its historic Powder Magazine structure, widely considered the oldest building in Illinois, is located only an hour from downtown St. Louis, at 1350 IL Route 155, 4 miles west of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois.
The site is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Natural Resources. IDNR protects the state’s historic resources, which contribute to education, culture and the economy. IDNR sites include ancient burial mounds, forts and buildings erected by settlers, and homes connected to famous Illinoisans. For more site information, call Fort de Chartres State Historic Site at 618-284-7230 or visit www.fortdechartres.us.
Les Amis du Fort de Chartres, “Friends of Fort de Chartres,” is a not-for-profit organization made up of volunteers striving to preserve, protect, and interpret the physical structural and cultural heritage of Fort de Chartres in the 1700s. More information about Les Amis du Fort de Chartres and its efforts sponsoring special events at Fort de Chartres, can be found at http://www.fortdechartres.us/les-amis-du-fort-de-chartres/.
General Fort de Chartres History-Fort de Chartres was built by the French military in the 1750s. It served as the seat of government and chief military installation in Illinois when France controlled the territory. The British then took it over and used it until 1772. The site was declared a national historic landmark in 1960. The fort’s powder magazine is the oldest building in Illinois.
The not-for-profit all-volunteer support organizations, Les Amis du Fort de Chartres and Les Coureurs des Bois de Fort de Chartres, will sponsor the Fort de Chartres State Historic Site special events in 2024, with additional support from event sponsors and donors. This effort covers event expenses that were previously covered by the state and is vital to our efforts to keep the Fort and the surrounding area’s businesses open and alive with activity. Les Amis du Fort de Chartres is very grateful for all the donations given to our Les Amis du Fort de Chartres Special Events 2016-2023 Giving Campaigns, corporate gifts, and individual donations that allowed us to successfully sponsor Fort special events. LAdFdC and LCdBdFdC look forward to work with the Fort’s other support organizations, along with special event donors, enabling us to continue to sponsor the annul Fort de Chartres special events in 2024.
DONATE now to our Les Amis du Fort de Chartres 2024 Special Event Events Giving Campaign!
Les Amis du Fort de Chartres 2024 Special Events Giving Campaign downloadable form available by clicking here.
We sincerely thank our Les Amis du Fort de Chartres 2023 Special Events Corporate Giving Campaign Sponsors
$1000 Gold Level
Buena Vista National Bank, with Branches in Red Bud, Evansville, Chester, & Prairie du Rocher
$500 Silver Level
Kaskaskia Regional Port District
$250 Bronze Level
First National Bank of Steeleville
Harrisonville Telephone Company (HTC)
The Material Works
Red Bud Masonic Lodge 427
$100 Copper Level
American Legion Post #622-Prariie du Rocher, IL
MAR Graphics
Red Bud Industries, Inc. ($200)
Merci!
For more information concerning Fort de Chartres 2023 Special Events, email lesamisdufortdechartres@gmail.com.
For additional Fort site information, contact (618) 284-7230