Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site Maps

Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site Description

Natchitoches was founded by a French Canadian, Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis, in 1714 while he was en route to Mexico from Mobile, Alabama, on a trade mission. When he reached the village of the Natchitoches Indians on the Red River, he had two huts constructed within the village and left a small detachment there to guard the stores and trade with the inhabitants. This became the first permanent European settlement in the territory later known as the Louisiana Purchase. In 1716, Sieur Charles Claude Dutisné was sent to Natchitoches with a small company of colonial troops to build and g