since it's april fool's day, i'm debating whether or not to put up this story because it might sound like a joke.... oh well. i'm putting it up anyway.
has anyone ever heard of the city of Kaskaskia, Illinois? i'm guessing not. and this is why: Kaskaskia was the first captial of Illinois. in 1753, it was the center of mississippi river commerce. there was a french fur trader there, named bernard, who hired some of the local indians to help with some menial work. bernard didn't really like the indians but he hired them anyway. turns out one of these indians, who's name i don't know, was educated by french missionaries and bernard kind of decided he liked him. and then he found out his daughter marie did too. and really big problems came up when he found out this indian man felt the same way about marie. so bernard fired him and had him blacklisted around town. since he couldn't find work, he had to leave but he promised marie he would be back for her. fast forward a year. marie had pretended to be interested in some of the guys around the town, but wouldn't settle down with any of them. and then a group of indians passed through kaskaskia. one of them was marie's lover in diguise. they got together and ran north, away from bernard. he found out and sent some men after them and cought them near cahokia. bernard ordered that the indian man be tied to a log and sent to drift down the mississippi. before he died he swore a curse. he said that before the year was out, bernard would be dead and he and marie would be together forever. kaskaskia and all of it's land would be ruined, the churches and houses destroyed, and the dead turned out of their graves. fast forward another year. marie died, possibly in a convent, and bernard challenged his buisiness partner to a duel. he was shot and killed. over the next one hundred years, the mississippi river changed from about three miles away from kaskaskia to barely one. the town suffered from so many floods that it was cut off from the mainland. people started to abandon the town. in 1973 the church and altar were flooded and destroyed; long before that, the cemetery had been flooded and all the bodies were lost to the river. you can still find kaskaskia on a map. but as of the last census in 2000, the population was nine. nine people. in the place that was the first capital of illinois.
when i read this, i thought maybe it was something made up for the book. so i googled it. i found maps of kaskaskia, birth and death records, marriages, and how the city was founded. and everything that was said in the curse happened. you have to decide for yourself whether you believe the curse had anything to do with it or not, but i believe it 100%. keep in mind that i did not make this up for april fool's.

Today's Random Thought: Don't follow in my footsteps. I run into walls. (sadly, this is true)