Across from the Rock for Fort St Joseph is a stone cross that stand up on a hill that overlooks the river. At the bottom of the cross is carved the word Allouez.
The stone cross marks the location where Father Jean Claude Allouez is buried after his death in 1689. Born in France in 1622, Father Allouez was ordained in 1655, and then sailed to Quebec. He travelled the area by land and canoe and established several missions in the western Great Lakes region. He was fluent in Native American languages and after the death of Father Jacques Marquette he was assigned to continue Fr. Marquette’s work.
Allouez came to Fort St. Joseph where he died. His final resting place was marked with a simple wooden cross. In 1918, the Women’s Progressive League marked the site with a stone cross bearing his name.
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