The Settlement of Southern Illinois
and the Mississippi River

Matt Reeb
Good Shepherd Lutheran School, Collinsville

Many Europeans had never seen a prairie before they came to America. They did not understand what the early explorers were talking about when they described the prairie. Louis and Joliet were some of the first prairie explorers and they tried to describe what they saw. They said, "It was a country ravaged by fire and could produce nothing."

Finally they explored the forest and found an overwhelming amount of rich soil that would change Illinois forever. People from all over wanted to come and settle in or near the Mississippi Valley. People from England, Ireland, Germany, and France started coming to Illinois. The people from France settled before people from many of the other countries arrived. They then started to make settlements like St. Louis, just across the river. Many of the immigrants from other countries got to the prairies much later then the French did, and founded Highland, Belleville, and Carbondale.

Many places were settled and many people lived in Southern Illinois and the Mississippi Valley. The reason they came was because there was so much good farmland. It would never have been discovered if it had not been for those early explorers.— [From Mark Wyman, Immigrants in the Valley.]

15 ILLINOIS HISTORY/ DECEMBER 2000