Illinois Adventure #1608 Pierre Menard Home State Historic Site
Sitting at the base of Garrison Hill Bluff, almost directly below Fort Kaskaskia, The Pierre Menard Home is one of the finest examples of Southern French Colonial architecture in the middle Mississippi River Valley. Pierre Menard, a French Canadian fur trapper and entrepreneur, began construction on this post-on-sill home in 1800 in the manner that most homes in the area were built, with hand-hewn timbers laid on the foundation (sills) and vertical studs mortised and tenoned into the sills. Local sandstone and limestone was used for the foundation, walks, and walls. Native woods used for the frame construction and finishing included oak, walnut, ash, cypress, and poplar. The home was built in a pecan grove and when the home was built it was at the edge of Kaskaskia village. Floods and erosion forced Kaskaskia to move and the Menard Home is all that is left of the original village that was once the first State Capitol of Illinois.
#1608 - Promo
Promo for Illinois Adventure # 1608 - Viewers travel to Utica to tour the LaSalle County Historical Society Museum-housed in a warehouse built in 1848 and now home to exhibits that remind visitors of events that left their imprint on both this region and the nation. The program also takes viewers to the Pierre Menard Home State Historic Site in Ellis Grove, to New Philadelphia to recall the story of a town founded in the 1830s as a path to freedom, and to Lake Kinkaid to fish for muskie.
[Highlights] Governor Quinn's first 100 days in office
It has been 100 days since Governor Pat Quinn took office. During this span, he has focused on three major themes: Reform, Responsibility and Recovery.