This drawing by Utrecht depicts Robert Cavelier de La Salle's expedition along the Mississippi River.
Library of Congress
European explorers encountered Louisiana in the 1500s and 1600s. Europeans did not start settling the land now called "Louisiana" until the 1700s.
The earliest known explorers, Alonso Alverez de Piñeda in 1519 and Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1528, possibly crossed present-day Louisiana or floated by Louisiana 's coastline. Moscoso de Alverdo of Hernando de Soto's crew sailed by the future site of New Orleans on his way to Mexico, although de Soto himself had died earlier in the expedition.
It would be a Frenchman who would lay the first European claim to the land.
1682: In April, Robert Cavelier de La Salle of France called the territory "Louisiana" after his king, Louis XIV. This territory stretched up through the continent, claiming land on either side of the Mississippi River.
1699: Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville established Fort Maurepas near modern-day Biloxi, Mississippi. He left from there and went up the river as far as future Baton Rouge, where there was a red stick marking the boundary between different Indian nations. (And what is the French word for red stick? That's right, "baton rouge.")
1714: Louis Juchereau de St. Denis established the settlement of Natchitoches.
1718: La Nouvelle-Orleans (New Orleans) was founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville and his expedition. Bienville had been assigned to build a city near the mouth of the river that could prevent the British or Spanish from going up the river. He decided to build the city at the site of the present-day French Quarter because because of an experience he'd had on his older brother Iberville's trip in 1699. The indigenous people there had told the brothers that there was this ridge of land, now known as Esplanade Ridge, which leads from the Mississippi to a waterway, now called Bayou St. John, and that bayou empties into Lake Pontchartrain. This made the site a perfection strategic location.
1722: France made New Orleans the capitol of French Louisiana.
1723: The French had begun to create the city that we know today. Second Royal Engineer Adrien de Pauger drew up a plan for what is now the French Quarter and insisted that any buildings already built be relocated to fit into his newly planned lots. De Pauger kept a prime lot for himself: it was larger and more elevated than average. De Pauger's lot is now the home of the park's headquarters and French Quarter Visitor Center.
