The following description was written by Father Jacque Marquette in 1673 traveling down the Illinois river:

"We have never seen anything like this river which we entered, for the richness of the soil, the prairies, the woods, the buffaloes, the elk, the deer; the wildcats, the buzzards, the swans, the ducks, the paraquets and beavers; it is made up of little lakes and little rivers. This upon which we voyaged, it is wide and deep and gentle for 65 leagues."

© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96