CAHOKIA

village, St. Clair county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River, opposite St. Louis, Mo. Founded in 1699 by Quebec missionaries and named for an Indian tribe (Cahokia, meaning wild geese), it became a centre of French influence in the upper Mississippi River valley. On July 4, 1778, it was captured for the United States by George Rogers Clark. In 1790, when St. Clair county was formed, Cahokia was made the seat (removed to Belleville in 1814). The Jarrot Mansion (c. 1800), Holy Family Catholic Church (built in 1799 and designated a national historic landmark in 1971), and the Cahokia Courthouse (1760, a state historical site) exemplify French pioneer architecture. Cahokia is the seat of Parks College Campus (formerly Parks College of Aeronautical Technology; 1927), now part of St. Louis University (Missouri). Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the location of a large prehistoric Indian city, is to the northeast, near Collinsville. Inc. 1927. Pop. (1994 est.) 16,959.