•December 27, 2017•

By Isaac Smith
Of the Southern Illinoisan

On July 4, 1778 the bell rang, and the battered people of Kaskaskia gathered. They found themselves under new rule. George Rogers Clark explained that the revolutionary government was not interested in changing their faith but wanted to give them liberty.

The once British-occupied territory had been liberated by Clark who was fighting for the Continental Army. About four decades later this small settlement flanked by the Mississippi River would be the home to Illinois’ first capital.

There is a lot to Kaskaskia’s story — a lot that wouldn’t be gleaned by a visit to the sparse island on what would seem to be the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. Emily Lyons, curator for the Randolph County Archives and Museum, said she has spent the last 20 years working to preserve the county’s history in an official capacity but has spent her life immersed in it.

Lyons said her family can be traced in a direct line back to settlers who came to what was then the Kaskaskia peninsula in the 1700s — Lyons explained that the peninsula became an island after years of deforestation along the banks of the Mississippi, as well as soil erosion, created a perfect storm in April 1818 when an ice pack at a bend in the river finally caused what was left of the remaining ties to the mainland to give way.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.