Ever heard of Fort Broken Heart Back in January of 1680, French explorer Ren-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, trudged up the freezing bluffs above the Illinois River and built a tiny wooden outpost. Things went downhill almost immediately. While La Salle walked hundreds of miles back to Canada for supplies, his men mutinied, looted the storehouse, and left a note reading We are all savages. Wild history, honestly. That chaotic mess actually became the first European settlement in Illinois.

So why visit today You can hike steep, heavily wooded trails, pitch a tent at the campground, and tour the reconstructed fort to see how rough those 17th-century soldiers had it. The river view hits different. If you drop by during the annual September Rendezvous, you'll catch re-enactors firing black powder muskets, throwing tomahawks, and cooking over open campfires.