El Camino Real de los Tejas: Texas-Louisiana Border Itinerary

Fort Jesup remained an important military post for nearly 25 years. The fort witnessed the migration of US settlers into Texas, the winning of Texas independence, and the annexation of Texas as a US state in 1845. Fort Jesup, no longer needed as a border outpost, was abandoned in 1846.

Los Adaes, the symbol of New Spain in Louisiana, was once the capital of Texas. The founding of Natchitoches in 1714 by the French resulted in Spain's establishment, within two years, of six missions and one fort in east Texas. In 1719, a French attack on nearby Mission San Miguel alarmed the Spanish and they built a new presidio, or fort, to counter any further French intrusion into Spanish territory.

On a mission to establish trading ties with Spain, French-Canadian trader Louis Juchereau de St. Denis encountered an impenetrable logjam on the Red River; at this spot he hastily built two crude huts, which become Fort St. Jean Baptiste and the town of Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in what would become the Louisiana Purchase. St. Denis was named the commandant of the fort in 1722, and the colony thrived until his death in 1744.