Camden, Arkansas

=== European exploration ===
The explorers Father [[Jacques Marquette]] and [[Louis Joliet]] in 1673 and [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]], in 1682 established French claims to the land they called [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]], which included what would become Camden, and found the [[Quapaw]] living at the confluence of the [[Arkansas River|Arkansas]] and [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] rivers. The Quapaw claimed the territory that included this part of the Ouachita basin, but it was also influenced by both [[Caddo]] trade and culture. The old Indian trail called the Caddo Trace, leading from the Quapaw villages on the Arkansas River to those of the Caddo on the [[Red River of the South|Red River]], crossed the Ouachita River at what is now Camden. French hunters, trappers, and traders, who were drawn to the area by the abundant game, later established a rendezvous point on the high bluff above the crossing. The place became known as Ecore a Fabri or Fabri's Bluff (later spelled Fabre).<ref name="EoA">{{cite web |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/camden-947/ |title=Camden (Ouachita County) |last=Milam |first=Daniel A. |publisher=[[Central Arkansas Library System]] |date=April 30, 2005 |website=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture|Encyclopedia of Arkansas]] |access-date=June 16, 2019}}</ref>

In late 1762, France ceded Louisiana to [[Spain]]. In 1782, the Spanish governor sent a Frenchman named Jean Baptiste Filhiol, known to him as Don Juan Filhiol, to establish a civil and military post in the Ouachita district. Filhiol first chose to locate his headquarters at Ecore a Fabri with the expectation of creating a settlement there. After about two years, he decided to move downriver to the more central site of Prairie des Canots, present-day [[Monroe, Louisiana]]. These locations were noted in 1804 by the Hunter-Dunbar Expedition that explored the Ouachita River.<ref name="EoA" />