New research rekindles debate over old French fort
19 June 2006
Associated Press
BEARDSTOWN, Ill. - Marty Fischer thinks this small central Illinois town has been robbed of a stake in history long credited to its bigger neighbors about 75 miles up the Illinois River.
Fischer says his research shows Beardstown, not the Peoria area, was home to Fort Crevecoeur, a 17th century French outpost believed to be the first structure built by Europeans between northern Wisconsin and the Gulf of Mexico.
Several historians say they are intrigued by the Macomb native's new theory about the fort, based in part on satellite photography that Fischer says shows remnants of three centuries-old settlements in the river bluffs near this town of about 5,700 people.
Fischer "has certainly done his homework," said Alan Harn, an anthropologist with the Illinois State Museum at Dickson Mounds, an American Indian burial ground near Lewistown. "He makes a very strong argument."
Former Dickson Mounds director Judith Franke predicts the Beardstown sites ultimately will share one thing in common with seven Peoria-area sites that have laid claim to the fort since debate over its location began in the mid-1800s - none of them can be disproved.
"You won't find the fort, wherever it is," Franke said.
She says the explorers who built Fort Crevecoeur abandoned it quickly as their enemies, the Iroquois Indians, approached. They probably left nothing behind, especially metal that could be melted into musket shot.
Fischer says he will eventually lead a research team into farm fields along the river south of Beardstown in search of proof - shifted dirt, rotted wood pylons or iron nails three centuries old.
"All my pieces fit, hand in glove," said Fischer, who returned to his native Illinois after managing a California ship repair business and has been aided in his research for the past year by his brother, Bruce, also of Macomb.
Fischer says satellite photographs offer fresh signs of the fort, including a series of ditches and a 600-foot earthen wall across the river from Beardstown that was once at least 15 feet high.
Maps and explorers' accounts of the fort also lend credence to the Beardstown sites, Fischer said.
He says the conclusion that the fort was built upriver in modern-day Creve Coeur or East Peoria is based on the assumption that explorers were referring to Upper Peoria Lake when they wrote that the fort was built a few miles south of "the widest part of the river."
"Who made that quantum leap? Look at any map. The widest part of the river is at Beardstown," Fischer said.
He said explorers also wrote that the fort was built about 325 miles from the St. Joseph River in northern Indiana, where a canoe expedition left Lake Michigan to reach the Illinois River.
By river, Fischer said, "that's the exact distance to Beardstown."
Based on Fischer's findings, "the book has to be reopened" on where the historic fort was built in 1680, said Carl Weber, who teaches history at DeVry Institute in Chicago.
Harold Tyson, an amateur historian, agreed, saying he has long heard talk of an old French fort near Beardstown, but never that it was Crevecoeur.
"Well, I think it's more than possible now," Tyson said.
19 June 2006
Associated Press
BEARDSTOWN, Ill. - Marty Fischer thinks this small central Illinois town has been robbed of a stake in history long credited to its bigger neighbors about 75 miles up the Illinois River.
Fischer says his research shows Beardstown, not the Peoria area, was home to Fort Crevecoeur, a 17th century French outpost believed to be the first structure built by Europeans between northern Wisconsin and the Gulf of Mexico.
Several historians say they are intrigued by the Macomb native's new theory about the fort, based in part on satellite photography that Fischer says shows remnants of three centuries-old settlements in the river bluffs near this town of about 5,700 people.
Fischer "has certainly done his homework," said Alan Harn, an anthropologist with the Illinois State Museum at Dickson Mounds, an American Indian burial ground near Lewistown. "He makes a very strong argument."
Former Dickson Mounds director Judith Franke predicts the Beardstown sites ultimately will share one thing in common with seven Peoria-area sites that have laid claim to the fort since debate over its location began in the mid-1800s - none of them can be disproved.
"You won't find the fort, wherever it is," Franke said.
She says the explorers who built Fort Crevecoeur abandoned it quickly as their enemies, the Iroquois Indians, approached. They probably left nothing behind, especially metal that could be melted into musket shot.
Fischer says he will eventually lead a research team into farm fields along the river south of Beardstown in search of proof - shifted dirt, rotted wood pylons or iron nails three centuries old.
"All my pieces fit, hand in glove," said Fischer, who returned to his native Illinois after managing a California ship repair business and has been aided in his research for the past year by his brother, Bruce, also of Macomb.
Fischer says satellite photographs offer fresh signs of the fort, including a series of ditches and a 600-foot earthen wall across the river from Beardstown that was once at least 15 feet high.
Maps and explorers' accounts of the fort also lend credence to the Beardstown sites, Fischer said.
He says the conclusion that the fort was built upriver in modern-day Creve Coeur or East Peoria is based on the assumption that explorers were referring to Upper Peoria Lake when they wrote that the fort was built a few miles south of "the widest part of the river."
"Who made that quantum leap? Look at any map. The widest part of the river is at Beardstown," Fischer said.
He said explorers also wrote that the fort was built about 325 miles from the St. Joseph River in northern Indiana, where a canoe expedition left Lake Michigan to reach the Illinois River.
By river, Fischer said, "that's the exact distance to Beardstown."
Based on Fischer's findings, "the book has to be reopened" on where the historic fort was built in 1680, said Carl Weber, who teaches history at DeVry Institute in Chicago.
Harold Tyson, an amateur historian, agreed, saying he has long heard talk of an old French fort near Beardstown, but never that it was Crevecoeur.
"Well, I think it's more than possible now," Tyson said.
