You're listening to an AirWave Media Podcast.

Ben Franklin's World is a production of the Omahaundro Institute and is sponsored by

the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Hello and welcome to episode 318 of Ben Franklin's World.

The podcast dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people and events of our

early American past have shaped the present-day world we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Covart.

In 1750, as British settlement continued to grow and develop along the North American

Atlantic Seaboard, a group of French colonists made their way along the Mississippi River.

About 620 miles north of New Orleans and 62 miles south of St. Louis, these colonists

established the town of St. Genevieve.

Largely at trading an agricultural settlement, the history of St. Genevieve reveals much

about what it was like to establish a colony in the heartland of North America, what

it was like to live and work so far away from the seats of imperial power, and what it

was like to serve as a cultural entrepoh as settlers interacted with their indigenous

neighbors and underwent three transitions and imperial governance.

Claire Casey, a national park service interpretive ranger at the St. Genevieve National Historical

Park, joins us to explore this frontier outpost and its fascinating cultural and imperial

history.

Now, during our exploration, Claire reveals information about the St. Genevieve National

Historical Park and how St. Genevieve became a national park service site, details about

early American life in St. Genevieve, and why the French established this frontier settlement,

...