The Heart of the Illinois Country Heritage Project

As part of our mission to celebrate the physical and cultural heritage of Fort de

Chartres and the surrounding community, Les Amis du Fort de Chartres developed The Heart of the Illinois Country Heritage Project.

The Heart of the Illinois Country Heritage Project stimulates new economic development and promotes the region’s history through education and business opportunities.

The Heart of the Illinois Country Heritage Project was developed by Les Amis du Fort de Chartres and is supported by surrounding community organizations such as the village of Prairie du Rocher, the Prairie du Rocher Chamber of Commerce, Randolph County Commissioners, Monroe County Commissioners, the City of Waterloo, and The Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail Coalition.

Instrumental programs of the Heritage Project include The Heart of Illinois Country Heritage Shop and Education Center, the Heritage Wheat Revival Project, and the publication of historical books.

All of these elements focus on our region’s French Colonial heritage and have the ability to create economic change, boost tourism development, and make a difference in both the local community and the region as a whole.

The implementation of our project offers additional educational and economic opportunities to capitalize on the annual 45,000-50,000 visitors already in the area visiting Fort de Chartres State Historic Site or attending the Fort’s annual special events.

Frank Melliere
The Heart of Illinois Country

Heritage Shop and Education Center

The Heart of Illinois Country Heritage Shop and Education Center promotes and sells handmade items that are crafted by regional and local Illinois Country Heritage Artisans, offering not only a location and platform to exhibit and sell their crafts, but also an opportunity to teach 300-year-old traditions to local community members.

The shop is owned and operated by Les Amis du Fort de Chartres, a nonprofit organization supporting Fort de Chartres. All proceeds fund the organization’s mission to support the physical and cultural heritage of Fort de Chartres through educational and charitable activities.

The artisans are passionate about creating and teaching the arts and cultures that have built the foundations of our region’s history and they have come together to share their efforts with you. Our shop offers a unique and educational experience exploring 18th century French-Colonial era Illinois Country culture.

The classes/demonstrations are geared towards providing economic growth opportunities for aspiring artisans, while sharing the area’s rich history. This history prominently features Fort de Chartres, as it was the foundation of the French, and subsequent European settlement of this region, extending from St. Louis and Cahokia in the north to Prairie du Rocher, Kaskaskia, and St. Genevieve in the south.

Currently, visitors can shop through our online store, but we hope to secure additional funding to one day have a physical shop location in Prairie du Rocher that will double as our Heritage Center.

Please join us in finding new innovative ways to support Fort de Chartres and its cultural heritage. Visit our online shop today!

The Heart of Illinois Country Heritage Shop

If you are an Illinois Country Heritage artisan and would like to join our community of vendors online, please contact us at lesamidufortdechartres@gmail.com.

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Teaching History Through

Hands-On Learning and Publications

The Heart of the Illinois Country Heritage Project also has other education/community elements including a new graphic line-art Fort history publication geared to young adults with appeal to readers of all ages, French Colonial Fort de Chartres, a Journey in Time.

The Les Amis 2018 educational line-art publication project, French Colonial Fort de Chartres, a Journey in Time, depicts “Forgotten Illinois” pre-statehood years of 1755-1756, in and around Fort de Chartres.

A Journey in Time is a 36-40-page line-art one color publication, created by award-winning artist Tom Willcockson and published by Les Amis du Fort de Chartres, with “Forgotten Illinois” grant support from the Illinois Humanities Council.

Tom is the artist of the current interactive pamphlet available at the Fort and among his many career accomplishments, his art is featured in two other publications, Twelve Moons: A Year with the Sauk and Meskwaki, 1817-1818 and Passage to Chicago: A Journey on the Illinois & Michigan Canal in the Year 1860.

In addition to the book publication, the Heritage Project has several other programs in the works, including the Heritage Wheat Project and a new Historic Prairie Education Plot.

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Les Amis du Fort de Chartres Seed to Loaf:

Heritage Wheat Revival Project

Our heritage wheat project celebrates the importance of the region’s rich French Colonial history of wheat cultivation. From collection and analysis of flotation samples, the grains of breadwheat (Triticum aestivum) from early eighteenth-century deposits at the Cahokia Wedge, represent the earliest records for this introduced grain crop in the Mississippi River Valley.  

Historic records indicate spring wheat was extensively cultivated very early by the French in the Illinois Country and we have chosen the heritage wheat variety of Rouge de Bordeaux to be planted in our wheat plots. 

In ??, we received support and permission from the Village of Prairie du Rocher to create a point of interest location on the King’s Road, modern day IL Route 155, planting a small 10’ x 10’ wheat plot in Prairie du Rocher near the levee, on Village property. 

Two additional project plots are planted in the area, with one of the plots located within the Fort de Chartres’ jardin potager.  In ??, the Fort de Chartres Heritage Garden successfully applied for additional heritage wheat project support through a mini grant offered by the University of Illinois Extension’s State Master Gardener Program.  

We are collaborating with the Village of Prairie du Rocher, area Master Gardeners, and the University of Illinois Extension staff to demonstrate small wheat plot techniques and other educational opportunities and classes while maintaining these 10’ x 10’ village wheat plots, exploring our region’s wheat history and the modern relevancy of growing wheat in small plots. 

Stay tuned as we announce updates and related demonstrations for our Seed to Loaf wheat project. We hope this heritage project will increase the region’s understanding of its rich cultural heritage of wheat cultivation and its importance in pre-statehood history.