During the 18th and 19th centuries this land was spoken of as “the
coast,” inferring a large body of water into which the tongue of land
projected. Like so many other lakes formed where streams run into the
river valley out of the hills, it is probable that old natural river
levees formed a bar or dam which produced the lake; some, however, are
of the opinion that the famous log jam in Red River was instrumental in
production of these lakes. At any rate, much of the traffic on the river
above Alexandria coursed along these lateral streams and lakes. When we
first visited this site, old residents spoke of a deep lake with
steamboat landings at the site and on present Smithport Lake.
The desirability of this land for habitation is attested by the several
prehistoric sites in the neighborhood, the size of the Smithport Landing
Site, and the early documents which indicate a white settlement within a
few years after establishment of Natchitoches Post. About equidistant
(25-30 miles) from Natchitoches and the Spanish counter post at Los
Adaes (Fig. 1), families and influences were derived from both the
French and Spanish. Records at Natchitoches record the birth of Joseph
Marcel Antonio De Soto, son of Manuel De Soto and Marie De St. Denis,
member of the family of Louis Juchereau De St. Denis who founded
Natchitoches, in 1758 (D’Antonio, 1961a). A later daughter married Paul
Lafitte of Bayou Pierre, as the Smithport Lake Settlement was called.
The Spanish influence became stronger in the latter 1700’s, after
Louisiana was ceded to Spain. Even after the Louisiana Purchase, this
land was on the margin of the “neutral ground” and for a time was under
Spanish jurisdiction. This, as well as a comment about a Yatasi Indian
village which may be of significance to the site, is indicated by
D’Antoni’s (1961a) account of the journey in 1808 of Don Marcelo De
Soto, who had become Spanish judge of Bayou Pierre Community, to San
Antonio to petition the governor for a resident pastor. The petition
reads in part:
Don Marcelo de Soto, acting justice of Bayupier, Jurisdiction of
Nacogdoches, together with Jose Lafitte, Silvestre Poissot, Pedro
Robleau and Miguel Rambin, all of aforesaid community, who have come
to this capital together, has the honor of appealing with all respect
to your lordship’s equity, conjointly with and in the name of all the
other residents of the specified Bayupier. [These] consist of thirty
Spanish families gathered together and long established in the
aforesaid place, with no large number of educated persons at their
service; besides, there is next to them the village of the Yatasi
Indians. They are all in need of the church and of an ecclesiastic to
minister the Holy Sacraments....
Although a resident pastor was not sent, priests from Nacogdoches
visited the settlement for some years, then visitation was taken over by
the French priests at Natchitoches. A chapel was constructed in 1843 “in
the center of De Soto Parish at Bayou Pierre.” In 1855 the first new
parish of the Natchitoches Diocese was established here and a resident
priest assigned (D’Antoni, 1961b).
In 1888 a Carmelite Mission was established, with a monastery and
subsequently separate schools for boys and girls (D’Antoni, 1962). The
Carmelites built a rock chapel which is now preserved as an historic
monument to their labors; the small settlement three miles east of the
site is now called Carmel.