Four Flags Over Fort Massac

During the 1500s the site was under Spanish ownership. In 1702 the French established a trading post and mission there, and in 1757 they built a fortification named Fort Massac to block British expansion into the Mississippi River. The French abandoned the fort to the British in 1764. In 1778 George Rogers Clark stopped there on his way to Kaskaskia. In 1794 George Washington ordered the fort rebuilt and garrisoned, and in 1908 the site was designated the first Illinois State Park.

Metropolis, Illinois · United States