FORT ST. JEAN BAPTISTE STATE HISTORIC SITE

In 1716, Sieur Charles Claude Dustiné established an outpost at this location to counter Spanish ambitions. The architect-engineer Ignace François Broutin redesigned it in 1732, deciding to reinforce it with a warehouse and a house for the guard, as well as barracks. Discovering that the posts of the palisade were rotting in the ground, he had them replaced and doubled by other smaller ones, an uncommon method of fortification at the time. The fort served as a defensive post until 1762, when the French ceded the country to the Spanish. During the Spanish colonial period, it became a center of trade and communication with the different points of the vast Spanish territory. The fort then deteriorated, no longer serving its purpose as a defensive post. When the Americans arrived in 1803, it was so dilapidated that they decided to build another one nearby, Fort Claiborne. The site we visit today is a 1979 reconstruction of the original fort, which was located a few hundred meters to the south. We discover the church, the commander's house, the powder magazine, the warehouse, the barracks, the guardhouse and the kitchen. The visit is brief because the fort is not very large, but very interesting because the techniques and materials used are those of the 18th century. One can easily imagine the simplicity of life within these walls and the strictly functional character of this fort at the beginning of the 18th century.