Perre Marquette State Park - Grafton, IL - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

In Grafton, at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, is Pere Marquette State Park, which has an entry in Wikipedia.

The visitor center is located on the east side of Illinois Route 100, and is a few miles north of the center of Grafton. There is a sign by the road.

The park consists of over 8,000 acres - the largest in area of Illinois State Parks. The terrain is mostly bluffs. The visitor center is at river level, while great views can be seen from the top of the bluffs.

The Wikipedia article has the following about the history:

"The park was named in honor of Father (Père) Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest who was the co-leader, with his comrade Louis Jolliet, of a 1673 voyage of exploration on the Mississippi River.[1] Marquette was the first European to map the mouth of the Illinois River, which he and Joliet used to return from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes.

. . .

At the mouth of the Illinois River, the explorers found one of the richest and most densely settled regions of North America, fully utilized by Native Americans of the Illini Confederacy. Large catches of fish, shellfish, and waterbirds were yielded from the rivers and adjacent wetlands. On top of the river bluffs, fertile windblown loess and topsoil could be used to grow corn, beans, and squash.

. . .

Pere Marquette State Park was founded in 1931 as the Piasa Bluffs State Park, but was soon renamed. The park's heart is a Civilian Conservation Corps-built lodge, first built in the 1930s and later expanded in 1985 to contain 72 rooms. A visitor center, with exhibits on local ecology and history, opened in 1997. The lodge and surrounding cabins were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985."

Park Web Site:
(visit link)

Wikipedia Url: [Web Link]

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