KASKASKIA

village, Randolph county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. It is situated on Kaskaskia Island in the Mississippi River, just west of Chester. The original settlement (now under water) was founded in 1703 as an Indian village and a Jesuit mission and developed as a French trading post and a farming community. Fort Kaskaskia (built in 1733 by the French) was destroyed in 1763 by villagers when the British occupied the region. George Rogers Clark captured the place in 1778 for the United States. Kaskaskia became the capital of the Illinois Territory in 1809; Illinois attained statehood in 1818, and Kaskaskia served as the state capital until 1820. The original village (incorporated 1818) was, after 1844, gradually inundated when the Mississippi River changed its course, creating the island; its last remnant disappeared with the great flood of 1881, and its name was transferred to the present village, a little to the south. The nearby home of Pierre Menard, the first lieutenant governor of Illinois, is preserved as a state historic site. Fort Kaskaskia historic site is to the north. Pop. (1990) 32; (1994 est.) 32.