Lusk's Ferry Road

Lusk's Ferry Road was an early road in Illinois that provided an overland connection between the main settlement, Fort Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi River, and Lusk's Ferry, an important crossing point on the Ohio River. The overland route afforded an alternative to the river route, which required a difficult trip upstream on the Mississippi.

Fort Massac is on the Ohio River, about 20 miles (overland) southwest of Lusk's Ferry. This was a French fort that was abandoned and burned in 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War, when control of the Illinois Country passed to the British. It is likely that the Lusk's Ferry road started as a French road that connected Fort Massac with Fort Kaskaskia. After Lusk's Ferry came into use, a road was built from the Ferry to the Fort Massac Road. With the Fort abandoned, the southern stretch of the road fell into disuse, and the road became the Lusk's Ferry Road.

In his conquest of Illinois in 1778 and 1789, George Rogers Clark, with the army of Virginia, crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky to Fort Massac. From there he headed north to the Lusk's Ferry Road, which he followed at least part of the way to Fort Kaskaskia, whose defenses were oriented toward repelling an assault coming up the Mississippi. Clark was able to take the Fort by surprise by approaching from the interior of Illinois.

The northwestern and southeastern segments of the Lusk's Ferry Road, close to Kaskaskia and Lusk's Ferry, were accurately mapped in the early surveys of Illinois, which were conducted around 1800. This survey was oriented toward marking out "Townships" that were six miles (10 km) square, subdivided into "Sections" that were one mile (1.6 km) square, pursuant to the Land Ordinance of 1785. Although the surveyors were not charged with mapping the roads, many did so. The locations of the roads were probably exact where they met the Section lines, about once every mile, and approximated between these points. The actual maps were drawn in the 1830s, but were based on the surveyors' notes from around 1800.

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