EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!French and Indian War Foundation supporters are contributing to history around the nation and across the globe.  If you, or someone you know, is contributing in new and interesting ways, please let us know.
Board Member Norman L. Baker, was inducted to  the Virginia History Series  HALL OF FAME! Go to the links below to view the first of three parts of Mr Baker’s recent research on Braddock’s Road.

Braddock’s Road 2011 LeadBraddock’s Road Camp 4 to Camp 7 Bare Camp

Board Member Published New Book;

Guest of Honor at Book Signing in Paris, France
Board Member, Dr. Carl Ekberg, was recently the guest of honor at a beautiful and well attended book signing in Paris France. In support of Carl’s outstanding achievement, fellow board member, David Look, attended the signing also.(Rumor has it the champagne was excellent!)

A copy of the invitation is below, as well as a brief description of the book’s content.

Great Work Carl… and anyone wanting to purchase a signed copy of this amazing book, please contact Dr. Ekberg directly.

Carl J. Ekberg

Professor Emeritus of History at Illinois State University

autour de son livre :

« A French Aristocrat in the American West  »

Introduction par Marie-Sol de La Tour d’Auvergne, President Emeritus of French Heritage Society

In 1790, Pierre-Charles de Lassus de Luzières gathered his wife and children  and fled Revolutionary France. His trek to America was prompted by  his “purchase” of two thousand acres situated on the bank of the  Ohio River from the Scioto Land Company—the institution that  infamously swindled French buyers and sold them worthless titles to  property. When de Luzières arrived and realized he had been  defrauded, he chose, in a momentous decision, not to return home to  France. Instead, he committed to a life in North America and began  planning a move to the Mississippi River valley.

De Luzières dreamed  of creating a vast commercial empire that would stretch across the  frontier, extending the entire length of the Ohio River and also  down the Mississippi from Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans. Though his  grandiose goal was never realized, de Luzières energetically pursued  other important initiatives. He founded the city of New Bourbon in  what is now Missouri and recruited American settlers to move  westward across the Mississippi River. The highlight of his career  was being appointed Spanish commandant of the New Bourbon District,  and his 1797 census of that community is an invaluable historical  document. De Luzières was a significant political player during the  final years of the Spanish regime in Louisiana, but likely his  greatest contributions to American history are his extensive  commentaries on the Mississippi frontier at the close of the  colonial era.

A French Aristocrat  in the American West : The Shattered Dreams of De Lassus de Luzières is both a narrative  of this remarkable man’s life and a compilation of his extensive  writings. In Part I of the book, author Carl Ekberg offers a  thorough account of de Luzières, from his life in Pre-Revolutionary  France to his death in 1806 in his house in New Bourbon. Part II is  a compilation, in translation, of de Luzières’s most compelling  correspondence. Until now very little of his writing has been  published, despite the fact that his letters constitute one of the  largest bodies of writing ever produced by a French émigré in North America.

le lundi 24 janvier 2011 à 18h30

à France-Amériques  9, avenue Franklin Roosevelt  75008 – Paris

La conférence (en anglais) sera suivie d’un verre amical et d’une séance de dédicace