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 e-Newsletter
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Historic Crevecoeur Park is looking to replace the Fort that stands as a replica of the encampment French explorer LaSalle and his men set up along the Illinois River in 1680. The Fort Crevecoeur group is looking for grants and other means of assistance to help fund the effort. Donna Hanse is the treasurer of the Fort Crevecoeur Board. She says the current replica is more than 30 years old, and is made out of telephone poles. Hanse says they are also hoping to correct the historical representation of the fort: “The Corps of Engineers constructed it and they used a model of a Western fort and that wasn’t what LaSalle did,” Hanse says.
“His was almost U-shaped I’d say that he built. And theirs was made almost like a Western fort. But we hope to remedy that someday soon.”
The Army Corps of engineers no longer has the capability to assist with such projects. So the Fort Crevecoeur group is looking for other means. Hanse says Ameren is willing to donate poles for the project but the Fort Crevecoeur board needs a way to transport them and rebuild. The Fort is expected to cost at least $300,000 to replace. Hanse says in addition to rebuilding the historic campsite, Fort Crevecoeur Park also needs to update its modern day camping facilities.
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