Renault was an important contributor to early efforts at mining, especially for lead, in the French colonies, which began in earnest when he transported African slaves from Saint-Domingue to settlements on the Mississippi River.
"[citation needed] Upon the latter land grant in the Illinois Country, Renault expected to grow food for his mining operations, taking advantage of the rich, black soil of what would later become known as the "American Bottom".
Renault founded the French settlement of St. Philippe in the southern part of present-day Monroe County, Illinois, approximately three miles north of Fort de Chartres, along the Mississippi River.
By the middle of the 19th century, the deforestation of the banks of the Mississippi River, as a result of logging operations to supply steamboats with fuel, led to increased unnatural erosion and flooding, as well as drastic channel shifts which later destroyed and submerged Kaskaskia, Illinois.
The damage caused by the river, especially in the Great Flood of 1993, obliterated the archaeological remains of St. Philippe, destroying the historical evidence beneath the layers of washed-away soil.
[4][5] By the late 19th century, the descendants of Renault's brothers, Armand and Jacques, both of whom had emigrated to the east coast of the United States, had changed the spelling of their name to Reno, an Anglicization of the sound.