Fort St. Louis

Since its founding in 1685, it was a doomed defensive fortress for a struggling band of French colonists. Lost to history after Indian attacks, the site of Fort St. Louis has finally been identified in eastern Victoria County, and archeologists from the Texas Historical Commission today are uncovering its story.

Fort St. Louis was founded by the French explorer René Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle and members of his ill-fated colony on the banks of Garcitas Creek, a few miles inland from the mouth of Lavaca Bay. A Spanish expedition led by Alonso de León came upon the remains of the fort in the spring of 1689, three or four months after the local Karankawa Indians had killed most of the remaining French colonists save for five children who were taken as captives.

The French had come to the middle Texas coast quite by accident. The colonists had intended to settle at the mouth of the Mississippi but miscalculated and landed nearly 400 miles to the west at Matagorda Bay. The colony established by the followers of La Salle was no more successful then the navigation. While the settlers were able to build a small but sturdy fort out of timbers salvaged from one of their wrecked ships, they were plagued by disease and suffered from malnutrition. La Salle led several small, unsuccessful search parties in repeated attempts to locate the Mississippi and was finally assassinated in the spring of 1687 by one of his own disgruntled men. Twenty remaining colonists at Fort St. Louis survived until late 1688 or early 1689 when the Karankawa attacked. All were killed but for the few French children who were taken captive. To the Karankawa, the French were unwelcome intruders.

When the Spanish soldiers arrived in April, 1689, they found a fort in shambles and the remains of three of the French settlers. They gave the settlers a proper burial and burned what remained of Fort Saint Louis in an attempt to eradicate all traces of the French presence. The Spanish soldiers also buried the eight French cannons they found, intending to come back for them later. The Spanish eventually established their own presidio (fort) at the site of Fort Saint Louis in 1722 but never relocated the cannons.

Historians and archeologists long debated the exact location of Fort Saint Louis, and some questioned whether in fact the Spanish had built their presidio over the ruins of the French fort as they had claimed. Archeological investigations at a site on Garcitas Creek by the Texas Memorial Museum in 1950 turned up ample evidence of the Spanish fort and a number of French artifacts. But the French cannons were not found; hence the uncertainty remained. This was resolved when a rancher found the cannons while using a metal detector at the site on Garcitas Creek. In 1996, archeologists from the Texas Historical Commission were called in to excavate and document all eight, neatly stacked cannons, untouched for more than 300 years.

This find ended the historical debate over the fort's location and led to a major investigation of Fort Saint Louis and the later Spanish presidio by the Texas Historical Commission (THC). Under the direction of Dr. Jim Bruseth with assistance from Project Director Mike Davis, THC archeologists have been excavating the site since 1999. They have traced the original French fort as well as the later Presidio and learned new details about both periods of occupation. One of the most important finds to date has been the grave of the three Frenchmen buried by the Spanish.

Teaching about the French in Texas

This lesson for 4th grade students is correlated to the above exhibit and other websites. Through researching, journal writing,  and answering a variety of questions, students will gain a broad understanding of early French exploration and settlement in Texas.

View French in Texas lesson in html (webpage)

Download French in Texas lesson in pdf (101k)

Print Sources

Wheat-Stranahan, Pam
2007  La Salle in Texas: A Teacher's Guide for the Age of Discovery and Exploration. Texas A&M University Press. [Includes many lessons and is accompanied by a DVD by Alana Govenar. Ideal for grades 4-8.]

Links

To read more about Fort St. Louis and the ongoing excavations, try the links below.

www.thc.state.tx.us/lasalle/lasfsl.shtml
Fort St. Louis research at the THC

www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/11/29/texas.dig.ap/ CNN coverage of the excavation of human remains at Fort St. Louis.

www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/
articles/view/FF/qbf45.html
Article on Fort St. Louis in The Handbook of Texas Online. Written before the THC excavations, it is somewhat outdated.