pntaylor1997: Fort St Jean Baptiste State Historic Site

2021 Apr 9

Today we visited Fort St. Jean Baptiste, a state historic site. The visitor’s center/museum is located in the historic district of Natchitoches. The fort is a replica of the original, built to the exact blueprints of the original fort, which was built not far away in 1714. The man in charge of this endeavor was Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis and it’s purpose was to protect the French interests in the Louisiana Territory. St Denis believed it was in the Fort’s best interest to get to know his neighbors, which included the local Natives and the Spanish inhabitants of a nearby fort, which was also there to protect the Spanish interest in the Louisiana Territory. St Denis opened trade with his neighbors and it was not unusual to see either of these neighbors inside the fort, trading at the store.

Our guide is an archeologist and his knowledge of that side of the history of the fort gave us a much better understanding of the life and times the occupants of the fort lived in. An additional plus for us, was that the employees and volunteers of the site were all artisans who have become proficient in the arts of the 1700’s. As you can see by the pictures, there are woodworkers, bead weavers, and fiber weavers. Our visit there was educational as well as enjoyable.

A few interesting tidbits…in the building of the fort, nearly 2,000 treated pine logs form the palisade and approximately 250,000 board feet of treated lumber went into the construction of the buildings. All of the hinges and latches were handmade at a nearby foundry.