Creve Coeur

A growing Anglo-French settlement in the 1810s-20s, Peoria aligned itself with the growing province of Illinoise despite being located inside Potawatomi territory. When Ouisconsin was admitted to the Council Fire in 1835, it was with the promise that it would hold to a border compromise with Illinoise over Peoria.

The solution was to place the city in both provinces, a not-unheard-of-situation, but one which in this case became a point of purely local contention (and the butt of many a joke about Peoria and Peorians). It made for a certain amount of complexity regarding the city government, having to deal with the laws of two provinces. But the system did work, however awkwardly. Socially, the situation proved more argumentative, a matter of dispute and sometimes fistfights over whether to seek union with one province, dividing the city into two, or letting matters remain as they were.

After considerable debate--and many attempts by factions to bring it to a head--a referendum finally came to a vote in 1968. It split the city into Peoria and West Peoria. The latter voted to change their name to Creve Coeur in 1973.