James Mason entered land in 1830 just to the east of Camden to establish a ferry to facilitate trade with St. Louis. Late in April, 1831, a flatboat drifted past here, manned by four men from the Sangamon country, bound for the New Orleans market. One of the crew, 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln, was to be indelibly impressed by the slave market at New Orleans. Mason built a home on his land, founding Grafton in 1836. An earth wharf was built, becoming known as Mason’s Landing. In 1837 the town of Hartford was platted where the Pere Marquette lodge now stands. The church and school bearing this name are the sole reminders of this development today. The flood of 1844 wrecked Grafton and business shifted east to Alton. When the Illinois and Michigan canal was opened in 1848 Mason’s Landing became a wood and coal center for the river traffic. Corded wood came from the surrounding forests and coal was kept in 2½ bushel boxes to maintain the steamboats. Large rafts of pine logs and lumber from Wisconsin appeared on the Mississippi River each spring, were caught at Grafton, and held backed up on the Illinois River, until needed farther down stream. Quarrying began in 1857, and the old Lindell Hotel in St. Louis, and the piers of the Meredosia and Hannibal railroad bridges were built of Grafton stone. The Underground Railroad was a well kept secret of the period in Grafton, Calhoun Point being the rendezvous for escaped slaves. AGE OF DINOSAURS The park bluffs command the first attention of the visitor. The four prominent hollows one views are ravines cut into an elevated plain. About 200 million years ago, what is now Illinois, was lifted from the sea for the last time and the age of the lizards followed. As the giant dinosaurs flourished, this region was the scene of earth movements that resulted in a dislocation of the rocks, producing the Lincoln Fold. Thus it happens that one is now in the eastern end of the Lincoln Hills which extend 30 miles from Lincoln County, Missouri, into Jersey County, Illinois. To the north the bedrock was uplifted 50 feet per mile, and pulled down steeply hundreds of feet to the south. At Pere Marquette State Park the Illinois River has cut a section through these folded beds. Rocks dipping at 45 degrees are plainly visible at two places along the foot trail and bridle path to Twin Springs. Here one can climb the Lincoln Fold just to the north of the Nature Museum on the foot trail to Goat Cliff. FOSSILS REFLECT HISTORY