Kaskaskia, Illinois the first state capital.

Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, it was settled by France as part of the Illinois Country. During the American Revolutionary War, the town, which by then had become an administrative center for the British Province of Quebec, was taken by the Virginia militia during the Illinois campaign. It was designated as the county seat of Illinois County, Virginia, after which it became part of the Northwest Territory in 1787. Kaskaskia was later named as the capital of the United States’ Illinois Territory, created on February 3, 1809. In 1818, when Illinois became the 21st U.S. state, the town briefly served as the states’ first capital until 1819, when the capital was moved to a more centrally located Vandalia.

The town was originally located east of the Mississippi river until it was destroyed by the flood in April 1881, as the Mississippi river shifted eastward to a new channel taking over the lower 10 miles of the Kaskaskia River. The state boundary line remained in the original location making Kaskaskia an exclave of Illinois lying west of the Mississippi and accessible only from Missouri.