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Joel’s Journal: Pere Marquette State Park, Illinois
By Joel Raeber
Posted
September 2010
 Pere Marquette State Park, Illinois' largest state park, is located about 40 miles north of downtown St. Louis, Mo., and five miles west of Grafton, Ill., at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Great River Road. The park’s 8,000 acres are best known for the fall foliage and for bald eagles in the winter. But year-round recreational activities include camping, hiking, biking, horseback riding, fishing and boating. There are great views of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers from several scenic overlooks in the park.
Pere Marquette State Park was named for Jacques Marquette, a French missionary who traveled with an expedition led by Louis Joliet to find a route to the Pacific. In 1673, Marquette and Joliet traveled down the Mississippi River as far as the Arkansas River and were the first Europeans to reach the area. A stone cross at the park entrance marks their landing.
Pere Marquette has a Class A campground with 80 sites large enough for most RVs, two are handicap accessible. None of the sites are pull-thru, but the campground is generally level, with mature trees. The campground is just across Illinois Hwy. 100 from the Illinois River. All sites have electrical hookups only. There is drinking water, a shower building and a dump station on the grounds. Some sites are available for reservation from May through October. (Reservations may be made at www.reserveamerica.com.) The park also has two Rent-A-Camp cabins, with bunk beds, a table with chairs, charcoal grill and picnic table.
The tent camping area is near the Class A campground and is a more rustic setting. Tent campers also have access to the shower building. There are also three organized group camping areas, and a youth camp area.
 The history of human habitation in the area around the park dates back to prehistoric times. Fossils can found in the rocks, exposed by millions of years of erosion. At McAdams Peak, two springs flow from rock deposited 350 million years ago. Throughout the park vertical banks of yellow clay can be seen, particularly along the road and bluff-tops. This is a windblown dust laid down a million years ago during the last great Ice Age. This loess covers all the ridges in the area and is topped by the soil that supports the current plants.
The park has more than 150 small Native American burial mounds, and the Illini Confederacy occupied the area when the Joliet and Marquette made their journey. A number of archaeological studies have been conducted here, most notably at the location of the Pere Marquette Lodge. Prior to its construction in the 1930s and again during the lodge’s expansion in 1985, evidence of prehistoric habitation was uncovered.
On their journey, Marquette and Joliet and saw the Piasa Bird on the Mississippi bluffs “…two painted monsters which at first made us afraid and upon which the boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes." The images were part bird, with the face of a man, scales like a fish, horns like a deer, a long black tail. A representation of the Piasa Bird is still maintained in paint on the bluffs about 20 miles from the park.
In the 1930s during the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built many of the buildings, shelters, bridges, water reservoirs, and trails at the park. The CCC also worked on the parking areas, campgrounds, and cleared some of the current scenic overlooks, in addition to archeological activities. Many of these CCC structures are still standing.
The current lodge consists of both new facilities as well as those constructed by the CCC. The lodge has guest rooms and stone guest cabins. Facilities at the lodge include a gift shop, indoor swimming pool, and tennis court. The cabins are more rustic than rooms at the main lodge. On Friday and Saturday, the lodge restaurant features family-style fried chicken and catfish dinners in addition to the full menu, and the Sunday brunch draws people from the entire area.
The huge stone fireplace in the lodge great room reaches to the roof, over 50 feet high, and is said to weigh 700 tons. The great room also includes a life-sized chessboard, where kids can test their strategy with chess pieces as large as they are.
Within the park are more than 12 miles of marked hiking trails, several launching ramps on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers for private boats, and a horseback riding stable that is open during the summer months. The trails' ratings range from easy to difficult and travel through a variety of habitats. They access some of the scenic overlooks that provide great views of panorama of the rivers and countryside.
 Pere Marquette State Park is also one of the starting points of a 20-mile paved biking and hiking trail that parallels the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway. It is known for its scenic views along with plenty of attractions and amenities.
The Park is well known as one of the best spots to look for bald eagles in the winter. With much of both rivers frozen over in winter, eagles congregate on the bluffs along the open waters of the rivers searching for fish. The park presents informative programs on eagles from late December through February and is also known for its owl population. It also presents a series of owl programs in the fall.
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