Natchitoches: Fort St. Jean Baptiste and Where to Eat

Location

130 Moreau Street
Natchitoches, LA 71457-3154
On the banks of the Cane River between downtown Natchitoches and Northwestern State University, minutes from I-49.

Price

$2.00 for persons 13 through 61 years old.
Free for persons 12 and under or 62 and over.
School groups are free and church groups with primarily children and seniors are free, also.

Schedule

Open daily except January 1, the third Thursday in November (U.S. Thanksgiving) and December 25.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Groups are asked to contact the staff to schedule a tour.

Contact Info

Phone: (318) 357-3101 or (888) 677-7853
Email: fortstjean@crt.state.la.us

Fort St. Jean Baptiste was the first French settlement in what became the Louisiana Purchase. (No, it wasn't New Orleans.) The Spanish had an established presence in nearby Mexican and Texas territory and the French chose a location suitable for both commerce and spying on the rival Spaniards whose Texas capital was only a few miles southwest at Los Adaes.

The first fort was built in 1515. An improved fort was constructed in 1532 and this second fort has been re-created only yards from the original site. That impressed me. I am also impressed that it has been reconstructed from the original plans for the second fort which were located in archives in France! Its remarkable that such plans have survived several hundred years.

Until my visit to Fort. St. Jean Baptiste, I had thought of forts has kind of "thrown together" by frontiersmen with some construction skills. I'm sure some were not built with much design put into them, but Fort St. Jean Baptiste was not one of them. Fort St. Jean Baptiste was carefully thought out by, what we can call, French "engineers" of the time. These designers dealt with the challenge to build a fort out of local materials that would be inexpensive, defensible militarily and comfortable for the inhabitants.

I was particularly interested in the "barracks." The fort included several structures about 10 by 12 feet that housed several men. About half the floor space of each structure would be used for a common bed built several feet above the ground, presumably to avoid the dampness of the soil. Because pillows would be a luxury in the New World, the "head" end of the bed would be constructed about four inches higher than the "foot" meaning that the mean would be sleeping on a slope. The beds look uncomfortable, but the thought behind the construction impressed me.

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