HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
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.