Case file · Folklore / legend
The legend of Starved Rock
Tradition says that around 1769, after the killing of the Odawa leader Pontiac, Illinois people besieged on a sandstone butte above the Illinois River starved to death rather than surrender.
1769 CE · 41.32, -89.00 · status: legend
The sceptical view
Historians doubt the siege as told; the story was first written down long after the events.