Edwards Trace

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The Edwards Trace was an overland road in what is now Central Illinois. It ran from Cahokia in the south to Peoria in the north and helped Euro‑Americans settle the area in the 1810s and 1820s.

Long before that, Native Americans had many trails across the region. The Cahokia‑to‑Peoria route was still in use during the late 1600s and early 1700s, a time of French mission activity. Cahokia and Peoria were large Native settlements at that time, connected by the trace.

After the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the United States claimed the land, but real control didn’t come until after the War of 1812, when many Illinois tribes allied with British fur traders. Frontier leaders in the American Bottom near Cahokia formed a company of Illinois Rangers. Led by Ninian Edwards, about 350 frontiersmen moved north along the Edwards Trace, gaining control of the Sangamon River area around Peoria. Edwards became a local hero, later serving in the U.S. Senate (1818) and as Governor of Illinois (1826).

Following the War of 1812, Central Illinois opened up for farming. The Edwards Trace reached its busiest period in the 1820s and 1830s as Euro‑Americans moved into the Sangamon River Valley. Goods moved along the trail: furs and hides going south, and salt, gunpowder, lead, iron tools, guns, farming implements, textiles, and other frontier supplies coming north. The traffic carved ruts in the prairie sod. As steamboats began traveling the Illinois River, the Trace’s use declined. The trail remained in use into the 1840s, but the new Alton & Sangamon railroad, chartered in 1847, drew traffic away and the old trace faded.

In the 1900s, many people forgot about the trail. The Edwards campaign in the War of 1812 was brutal toward Native people, with villages burned in Kickapoo lands. The Trace itself mostly disappeared, buried under roads, fields, and later projects. Still, survey records and old settlers’ reminiscences helped historians locate a short stretch of preserved trace at Lake Park near Lake Springfield, and a marker commemorating the rediscovery was placed in 2002.

Today, the Edwards Trace connected communities like Cahokia, Edwardsville, Springfield, Elkhart, and Peoria. Portions of Interstate 55 and Interstate 155 run roughly along its old route.