The park was named in honor of Father (Père) Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest who was the co-leader, with his comrade Louis Jolliet, of a 1673 voyage of exploration on the Mississippi River.Marquette was the first European to map the mouth of the Illinois River, which he and Joliet used to return from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes.
Pere Marquette State Park was founded in 1931 as the Piasa Bluffs State Park, but was soon renamed. The park's heart is a Civilian Conservation Corps-built lodge, first built in the 1930s and later expanded in 1985 to contain seventy-two rooms. A visitor center, with exhibits on local ecology and history, opened in 1997. The lodge and surrounding cabins were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The park contains approximately 12 miles (19 km) of marked trails.
Approximately 230 species of bird have been logged in the park, and a
horseback riding stable operates during the warmer months. There is also
a 2,000-acre (810 ha) public hunting area for deer, squirrel, wild turkey,
and other target species. There are also several launching ramps for
private boats to enter the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
The park includes a geologic anticline, an upward arching of stratified rock dated to crustal movement circa 200 million years BP. The feature has been named the Lincoln Anticline. At Cap-au-Grès the two sides of the fold can be observed having parted and moved away from each other.
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