Events

Join Josh Hepler of the Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park as he demonstrates the bousillage technique at Fort de Chartres on Saturday, September 26th from 10am-2pm.
Bousillage is the French term for the earthen architecture construction style used throughout colonial Louisiana and Illinois Territory. Bousillage was commonly used as in-fill between wooden features to insulate walls. It was also used to construct chimneys, bread ovens, and possibly fences. Examples of Bousillage can be seen locally at Les Amis du Fort de Chartres in Prairie de Rocher, Illinois and in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.

Demonstrator will be using 2 freestanding forms containing four 5-foot hand hewn vertical logs in each that visitors will learn about the creation and installation of Bousillage. The mixture of clay soil and Spanish Moss was an Indigenous recipe, adapted with techniques contributed by the French, French Creoles, Acadians, and Africans. In the more northern regions such as Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri, the mixture was adapted by eliminating the Spanish Moss that did not grow natively and by adding straw and lime.
Many other cultures use similar earthen architecture to build structures of tabby, cob, adobe, etc. in the USA and throughout the world.

Bousillage [buzijaz] Noun, masculine. French, from bouse (cow dung) via bousiller (v.) to fill up with dung; to cover or in-fill with cobs (lumps) of dung.

Reference: Valdman, Albert, et als. A Dictionary of Louisiana French As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities. University Press of Mississippi, 2010.

Interpreters will be on site during the event to give site tours and the Heart of Illinois Country Harvest Heritage will be open.