Old Cahokia Courthouse - Under The Flag of France

Under The Flag of France

Following the explorations of Marquette, Jolliet and La Salle in the 1670s, the Mississippi Valley became part of New France. The adventurous French had mapped more territory than their numbers could settle, but their attention soon focused on a section of the valley south of the mouth of the Missouri River. In this region, which would later be known as the American Bottom, the alluvial soil was exceptionally fertile, and the local Native Americans, members of the Illiniwek nation or Illinois Confederacy, were friendly to the newcomers.

In the early 18th century, French-speaking immigrants, mostly from Canada, settled villages in the American Bottom such as Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia. They lived in harmony with the Indians and named several of their villages, such as Cahokia, after constituent tribes of the Illiniwek who lived nearby.

The building now known as the Cahokia Courthouse traces its ancestry back to a French-Canadian log cabin built by one of these settlers about 1740. In line with his group's customary architecture, the unknown builder built the cabin with logs raised vertically. This was different than the logs placed horizontally, as had become the custom among English-speaking frontiersmen farther east. The French colonial building style is called poteaux-sur-solle (French:post on sill) construction, with the building's posts grounded in a foundation sill to retard wood rot.