KASKASKIA ISLAND, IL – When Americans ring in the Fourth of July this year, a celebration to mark another type of ringing will take place in a 300 year old Illinois community west of the Mississippi River.

            The 35^th annual Independence Day Celebration is planned for 12:30 p.m. Sunday, July 4 at Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site on Kaskaskia Island.  On that date in 1778 George Rogers Clark rang the bell after he and his troops occupied Kaskaskia without firing a shot during the Revolutionary War.  The bell was given to the church at Kaskaskia in 1741 by King Louis XV of France.

Danny James of Chester will be master of ceremonies at the hour-long patriotic ceremony, which is free and open to the public.  Reverend Dave Corrigan, S. J. will give the invocation.  Other remarks will be made by Don Welge, President of Gilster Mary-Lee Corp; Emily Lyons, representing Kaskaskia Island residents; Kenneth Ragland, Commander of the Chester V.F.W. Post 3553 and Robert Lohman, Commander of the Chester American Legion Post 487; the mayors of Chester, Illinois and Perryville, Missouri; and Dennis Thomas of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.  The principal address will be given by Mrs. Martha Pope Emling, Illinois State Organizing Secretary, Daughters of the American Revolution.

Patriotic music will be performed by the Chester Municipal Band.  Christine McClure and Harvey Hall will sing various patriotic selections.  Brian Roth will play taps.  Since the Liberty Bell of the West cannot be rung, the church bells next door will be rung by the Cassoutt sisters - Lily Donze, Barbara Billington, Marilyn Schoeppel, and Carolyn Llorente - to signify that freedom is still alive for the American people.   

            Area Boy and Girl Scout troops, as well as French Marines from nearby Fort de Chartres State Historic Site commanded by Steve Meister, will also participate in the ceremony.  Visitors should bring lawn chairs, although some chairs will be provided under tents.

            The Independence Day Celebration is being sponsored by the Chester V.F.W. and American Legion Posts, the City of Chester, and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

            The historic Immaculate Conception Church located near the Kaskaskia Bell will be open during the event.  Organist James Sparks will present thirty minutes of patriotic songs and other favorites on the 1878 restored Jackson organ at 2 p.m. in the church.  Refreshments and a four dollar plate lunch will be available before and after the program.

            Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), is located on a 14,000-acre island six miles above Chester, Illinois.  It was once physically connected to the State of Illinois, but a devastating flood in 1881 covered the village that was Illinois' first state capital and caused the Mississippi River to change course, thereby separating the island from the rest of the state.  A small brick building on Kaskaskia Island today houses the 650-pound bell, which was cast in France as a gift to the French who first settled Illinois.  Exactly two years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, George Rogers Clark rang the "Liberty Bell of the West" to celebrate the capture of Kaskaskia, the westernmost military action of the Revolutionary War.  Twenty-five years later in 1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (brother of George Rogers Clark) visited here and added men and supplies for their Expedition of Discovery.